FEB   4  1910 


Division 


C 


WIG 

Section      .8.  Vn^3 


THE  JEWISH  RELIGION 
IN  THE  TIME  OF  JESUS 


The  Jewish  Religion 
in  the  Time  of  Jesus 


G.  HOLLMAN  \^     *  '--^   4  i9iu 

OF  HALLE  \-\''^„    '       -»^*^r»—     ^,- 

TRANSLATED   BY  EDWARD    LUMMIS,   M.  A. 


BOSTON 

AMERICAN  UNITARIAN  ASSOCIATION 
1909 


PREFACE 

The  account  given  in  the  following  pages  is 
intended  to  make  accessible  to  all  who  are 
interested  in  the  subject  the  present  state  of 
investigation  in  this  field,  as  it  is  exhibited  especi- 
ally in  the  great  works  of  Schiirer  and  Bousset. 
While  its  purpose  is  to  furnish  the  lay  reader 
with  an  introductory  guide,  the  more  instructed 
will  perhaps  find  it  not  unwelcome  as  a  brief  survey 
of  the  subject.  Considering  the  uncertainty  and 
obscurity  in  which,  in  spite  of  all  the  labours  of 
the  last  ten  years,  later  Judaism  is  still  involved, 
I  have  aimed  not  so  much  at  completeness,  as  to 
bring  out  sharply  and  clearly  the  decisive  and 
fundamental  Unes.  I  have  intentionally  dealt 
somewhat  more  fully  with  the  Jewish  apocalyptic, 
because  it  is  least  known  to  the  lay  reader,  because 
a  popular  account  of  it  has  not  yet  appeared,  and 
because  it  is  precisely  on  this  ground  that  so  many 


VI  PREFACE 

preconditions  for  understanding  the  thought-world 
of  Jesus,  in  the  light  of  rehgious  history,  are  to 
be  found.  I  recommend  all  those  to  whom  post- 
exilic  Judaism  is  stiU  entirely  unknown  to  read 
the  Appendix  first,  so  as  to  acquire  at  least  some 
of  the  elementary  facts  necessary  to  the  under- 
standing of  the  historical  situation. 

Georg  Hollmann. 

Halle,  15  December,  1904. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface     v 

Introduction Ix 

I    Unity  of  the  Church  and  Distinctions  within  it  i 

II    Doctrine  and  Piety  in  the  Church      ...  39 

III  Popular  Piety 74 

IV  The  Jewish  Apocalyptic 91 

Conclusion 128 

Appendix 

( i)  Historical  Table  from  the  Exile  to  the  Destruction 

of  Jerusalem 132 

(2)  Chronological    Survey    of    the    most    important 

Literary  Sources 134 

Literature 138 


INTRODUCTION 

What  was  the  religion  of  the  Jews  at  the  time 
of  Jesus'  pubhc  work  ?  This  is  not  merely  a 
question  for  the  scholar  who  happens  to  take  an 
interest  in  this  special  religion  at  a  definite  date 
in  its  development ;  it  is  of  the  widest  possible 
significance.  Every  one  who  wishes  to  understand 
Jesus,  or  Paul,  or  early  Christianity  in  general, 
must  find  an  answer  to  it ;  for  the  new  religion 
took  its  rise  in  the  bosom  of  Judaism,  bears  the 
tokens  of  its  origin,  and  had  to  struggle  upwards 
through  severe  contests  into  freedom.  Only  he 
who  is  able  to  believe  that  Christianity  suddenly 
descended,  a  perfectly  new  thing,  from  a  super- 
natural world  into  this,  can  remain  indifferent  to 
the  surroundings  in  which  it  arose.  The  rest  of 
us  must  take  account  of  the  general  law  of  origins 
— that  every  new  manifestation,  without  pre- 
judice  to   its   originality,  is   conditioned,  among 


X  INTRODUCTION 

other  things,  by  the  environment  in  which  it 
arose.  Even  Jesus  is  subject  to  this  law.  In 
spite  of  all  efforts  to  Aryanise  him  the  fact  remains 
that  he  can  only  be  comprehended  by  means  of 
Judaism.  His  conception  of  the  universe  has  its 
roots  in  Judaism.  This  is  the  foundation  on 
which  all  the  mighty  freshness  of  his  moral  and 
religious  personality  is  based.  For  this  reason  all 
who  wish  to  understand  the  religion  of  Jesus  must 
also  know  the  religion  which  the  Jews  had  at  the 
time  of  his  appearance. 

Is  it  enough  if  we  read  the  Old  Testament  ? 
Certainly  not.  That  was  the  serious  mistake 
made  by  a  bygone  period,  an  unhistorical  type 
of  thought.  The  Old  Testament  could  not  pos- 
sibly suffice  for  our  purpose  unless  its  writings 
came  down  to  the  time  of  Jesus,  so  that  we  might 
really  discern  in  them  the  reUgion  of  the  Jews  who 
were  then  alive.  But  that  is  not  the  case.  Most 
of  the  Old  Testament  writings  are  very  considerably 
older.  The  books  which  belong  for  certain  to  the 
two  centuries  before  Christ  are  only  a  few  Psalms, 
Daniel  and  Esther,  with  perhaps  Ecclesiastes. 
Since  the  time  of  the  Maccabees,  which  marks  the 
great  turning-point  in  the  post-exile  period,  the 


INTRODUCTION  XI 

Jewish  religion  had  undergone  a  very  important 
development ;  this  is  easily  perceived  when  we 
examine  the  pieces  of  Jewish  literature  which 
stand  nearest  to  the  time  of  Jesus.  A  distinction 
must  be  made  between  the  religion  of  the  Jews 
of  the  time  of  Christ,  and  the  deposit  of  a  long 
process  of  religious  development,  such  as  lies  be- 
fore us  in  the  Old  Testament.  This  appears  to 
be  a  very  simple  truth  ;  but  hard  fighting  has 
been  needed  to  establish  it,  and  there  are  many 
who  do  not  understand  it  even  now. 

The  recognition  of  this  truth  does  not  in  the 
least  imply  a  depreciation  of  the  Old  Testament. 
A  knowledge  of  its  contents,  indeed,  is  quite  in- 
dispensable to  the  study  of  the  Jewish  religion 
in  Jesus'  time.  It  was  the  Bible  of  the  Jews  of 
that  age,  and  seemed  to  them  to  contain  merely 
their  own  rehgion.  The  Old  Testament  was 
always  their  base  and  starting-point,  but  it  must 
be  owned  that  they  had  gone,  unconsciously,  very 
far  beyond  it.  Still  the  holy  Scripture  served 
also  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  new  religious  develop- 
ment. Should  the  rehgious  sense  be  offended  by 
any  of  the  elements  of  the  religion  which  prevailed 
in  its  own  time,  it  was  enabled  to  survey  past 


XU  INTRODUCTION 

ages,  and  to  recover  better  things  which  had  been 
left  behind.  Jesus  it  was,  pre-eminently  Jesus, 
who  often  reached  back  beyond  the  religion  of 
Jewry  to  the  religion  of  Israel,  especially  that  of  its 
prophets.  But,  after  all,  the  literature  which  will 
be  of  first  importance  in  our  study  of  the  Jewish 
religion  in  Jesus'  time  is  the  religious  literature 
which  that  time  itself  produced. 


Chapter  I 

UNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH  AND 
DISTINCTIONS  WITHIN  IT 

When  Jesus  appeared  the  Jewish  nation  was 
not  one  of  those  numerous  Asiatic  races  about 
which  people  neither  knew  nor  cared.  On  the 
contrary,  it  was  spread  over  the  whole  world,  as 
every  one  knows  from  the  story  of  Pentecost.^ 
Greeks  and  Romans,  learned  and  lewd,  all  knew 
the  Jews  from  their  own  point  of  view,  and  had 
their  own  deahngs  with  them.  We  have  many 
testimonies  of  heathen  writers  to  prove  this. 
Judaism  had  become  a  world-wide  power.  Im- 
portant beginnings  had  been  made,  especially  in 
Egypt,  before  the  Maccabean  age ;  but  the 
extension  of  Judaism  in  the  grand  sense  does  not 
seem  to  have  originated  until  after  the  great 
upheaval  of  the  people  in  the  war  of  liberation 

1  Acts  29-11. 

B 


2  UNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH 

under  the  Maccabees.  The  racial  forces  then  set 
free  sought  for  opportunities  of  exercise,  both 
within  and  beyond  the  land  of  Palestine.  The 
Herodian  age  in  particular,  because  of  the 
sagacious  pro-Roman  policy  of  the  Idumeans, 
may  well  have  been  favourable  to  the  diffusion 
of  the  Jews  throughout  the  entire  Roman  empire. 
And  with  regard  to  the  time  of  the  Emperor 
Augustus,  in  which  Jesus  was  born,  Strabo  is 
able  to  write  about  the  Jews  :  '  They  are  spread 
about  in  almost  every  city  of  the  globe,  and  it  is 
not  easy  to  find  any  place  in  the  world  which  has 
not  given  shelter  to  this  people,  and  does  not 
stand  under  its  sway.'^  They  were  remarkably 
strongly  represented  in  Egypt  and  Cyrene,  and 
in  cosmopolitan  cities  like  Rome  and  Alexandria. 
The  question  forcibly  suggests  itself — what  was 
it  that  connected  the  Jews  in  foreign  lands  wdth 
their  native  Palestine  ?  What  common  bond 
united  them  all  ? 

It  was  not  the  bond  of  nationahty.  No  doubt 
the  foreign  Jews  always  felt  that  they  were  Jews. 
But  such  a  tie  will  not  long  endure  unless,  over 
and    above    the    racial    idiosyncrasy — which    is, 

1  According  to  Josephus,  Antiquities  14,  72. 


AND   DISTINCTIONS  WITHIN   IT  3 

beyond  question,  especially  sharp  and  strong 
among  the  Jews, — there  is  a  strong,  imposing, 
independent  mother  country,  whose  far-off  scions 
can  think  of  her  with  pride  and  joy  as  still  their 
own,  and  gain  from  her  the  power  to  preserve 
their  national  feeling.  But  what  was  Palestine 
in  the  Augustan  age  ?  A  subject-state  of  Rome. 
Since  the  Babylonian  captivity  the  Jewish  people 
had  never  been  able  to  regain  any  lasting  national 
independence.^  It  had  been  tossed  from  hand 
to  hand,  from  Persian  to  Macedonian,  from 
Egyptian  to  Syrian,  only  to  rest  caught  at  last 
in  the  brazen  clasp  of  Rome.  But  a  subject- 
people  cannot  keep  its  distant  members  for  ever, 
if  the  question  is  to  be  decided  by  national  feeling- 
There  certainly  were  times  when  the  ancient 
national  force  broke  out  with  an  almost  volcanic, 
unearthly  fury.  One  such  outbreak  occurred 
when  the  Syrian  ruler  Antiochus  Epiphanes  tried, 
with  brutal  violence,  to  force  the  Jewish  people 
to  accept  Grecian  culture.  The  bloody  struggles 
under  the  leadership  of  the  Maccabees,  which 
gave  answer  to  this  attempt,  meant  first  of  all 
a  passionate  flaming  up  of  the  old  national 
1  Except  during  the  Hasmonean  dynasty,  141-63  e.c. 


4  UNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH 

strength ;  and  their  immediate  consequence  was  a 
ruthless  exclusiveness  against  everything  foreign,^ 
a  hardening  of  national  peculiarities,  a  burning 
concern  for  national  independence.  And  again, 
just  at  the  time  of  Jesus'  appearance  and  in  the 
next  few  decades,  an  extraordinary  political 
fermentation  was  at  work  in  the  Jewish  people. 
The  yoke  of  Roman  rule  was  growing  intolerable. 
The  stronger  the  feeling  that  they  had  fallen  under 
the  sceptre  of  an  impregnable,  universal  power, 
so  much  the  more  convulsive,  we  may  even  say 
feverish,  grew  the  longing  for  their  ancient 
freedom.  '  Freedom  from  Rome  at  any  price  ' 
was  the  watchword  of  the  people.  Insurrection 
blazed  forth  now  here,  now  there  ;  false  Messiahs 
multiplied,  promising  the  deluded  populace  that 
they  would  restore  the  kingdom  of  David  in  greater 
glory  than  of  old  ;  until  that  last  great  rising  came 
in  the  seventh  decade  of  the  first  century,  that 
mad,  hopeless  struggle  with  an  irresistible  an- 
tagonist, which  ended  in  the  overwhelming  catas- 
trophe of  the  year  70  a.d.  These  were  certainly 
last  attempts  of  the  Jews,  attempts  which  will 
always  command  our  sympathy,  to  maintain  them- 

1  The  book  of  Esther  is  a  striking  testimony  to  this. 


AND   DISTINCTIONS   WITHIN    IT  5 

selves  as  a  nation.  But  they  cannot  blind  us  to 
the  fact  that,  in  spite  of  all  that  tense  national 
feehng,  the  tie  which  united  all  Jews  was  not 
nationality.  A  decisive  proof  of  this  is  the  in- 
contestable fact  that  Judaism  not  only  survived 
the  final  collapse  of  the  nation,  which  began  in  the 
year  70  with  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  and 
ended  with  the  suppression  of  the  insurrection 
of  Barcochba  in  135,  but  did  so  with  ease,  without 
its  existence  being  threatened  for  a  single  moment. 
It  must  therefore  have  been  something  other  than 
national  community  that  held  the  Jews  together 
amid  all  their  dispersion,  amid  all  their  restless 
wandering,  and  indeed  has  held  them  together  from 
that  time  down  to  the  present  day. 

Imperceptibly — one  might  almost  say  by  stealth 
— a  yet  stronger  bond,  a  spiritual  bond,  had  been 
woven,  the  unity  of  one  common  Church.  Whether 
the  Jew  was  in  Rome,  Corinth,  or  Alexandria, 
everywhere  he  found  his  synagogue,  his  Bible, 
hij  feasts,  above  all  his  Sabbath,  and  the  contribu- 
tion to  the  Temple  in  Jerusalem  ;  everywhere 
the  same  spiritual  atmosphere,  the  air  of  one  and 
the  same  Church.  In  this  connexion  the  syna- 
gogue must  first  be  mentioned. 


6  UNITY   OF   THE   CHURCH 

The  focus  of  the  reUgious  hfe  of  the  Jews  was 
no  longer  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem.  They  yielded 
to  it,  indeed,  the  due  respect  and  reverence  which 
was  a  tradition  from  their  fathers.  Every  year 
the  Temple  tribute  was  collected  throughout  the 
Diaspora^ ;  every  one  must  pay  it  from  his 
twentieth  year  onwards,  and  no  true  Jew  shirked 
the  duty.  Enormous  sums,  carried  by  accredited 
ambassadors,  flowed  in  this  way  into  the  sanctuary. 
Moreover  pilgrimages  were  paid  every  year  to 
Jerusalem,  the  holy  city,  and  its  Temple,  just  as 
later  the  Mohammedans  went  as  pilgrims  to  Mecca. 
Nevertheless  it  was  inevitable  that  the  importance 
of  the  Temple  should  decline,  as  it  actually  did. 
If  even  the  Galilean  found  great  difficulty  in 
journeying  to  Jerusalem,  how  much  greater  must 
have  been  the  difficulties  of  the  Jews  of  the 
Diaspora,  who  dwelt  at  remote  distances.  There 
must  certainly  have  been  many  to  whom  it  was 
impossible,  for  reasons  of  money  or  health,  to 
come  even  once  a  year  to  Jerusalem.  And  what 
signifies  after  all  one  single  festal  visit  to  the  holy 
site  ?     The  religious  life  cannot  be  nourished  on 

1  Diaspora  means  Dispersion,  to  wit  that  of  the  Jews  in 
the  world  outside  Palestine. 


AND  DISTINCTIONS  WITHIN   IT  7 

that  the  whole  year  through.  In  this  case,  too, 
a  decisive  proof  that  Jewish  piety,  in  spite  of  its 
external  reverence  towards  the  Temple  worship, 
had  been  imperceptibly  detached  from  it,  lies  in 
the  fact  that  the  destruction  of  the  sanctuary 
and  its  worship  in  the  year  70  did  not  seriously 
impair  the  strength  of  Judaism. 

The  actual  religious  life  had  long  before  found 
its  new  focus  in  the  synagogue,  an  institution 
which  has  lasted  to  the  present  day,  weathered 
all  storms,  and  so  proved  its  utility.  The  word 
synagogue,  i.e.  '  assembly,'  denotes  both  the 
religious  community  and  the  place  in  which  the 
inhabitants  of  any  district  assemble  for  divine 
service  on  Sabbath,  feast-days,  and  fast-days.^ 
It  cannot  now  be  determined  with  any  certainty 
when    the    first    synagogues    were    established. 

1  The  chief  religious  festivals  of  the  Jews,  besides  the 
Sabbath,  are  :  the  Passover  (at  the  end  of  March  or  beginning 
of  April ;  a  memorial  of  the  Exodus  from  Egypt) ,  the  Feast 
of  Weeks  or  of  First-fruits  (about  Whitsuntide,  the  festival 
of  the  first  harvest  and  of  the  Law),  the  great  Feast  of  Atone- 
ment (at  the  end  of  September,  expiation  for  the  whole  people),- 
the  Feast  of  Booths  (at  the  end  of  September  and  beginning 
of  October,  the  festival  of  the  second  harvest  and  a  memorial 
of  the  forty  years  in  the  wilderness),  the  Feast  of  Purim  (at 
the  end  of  February  or  the  beginning  of  March ;  cf.  the  book 
of  Esther). 


8  UNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH 

Whether  they  were  first  used  during  the  Exile,  or 
immediately  afterwards,  or  on  the  other  hand  not 
until  after  the  time  of  the  Maccabees,  is  still  a  con- 
troverted question.  It  is  enough  for  us  that  at 
the  time  of  Jesus'  appearance  the  synagogue  and 
the  Sabbath  services  were  perfectly  settled  institu- 
tions. As  regards  the  procedure  in  worship  we 
shall  go  into  greater  detail  in  our  next  chapter. 
At  present  the  important  point  is  to  make  clear 
the  way  in  which  these  synagogues,  which  existed 
in  all  Jewish  communities,  with  their  similar 
services,  were  certain  to  make  for  the  union  of 
the  dispersed  members  of  the  Jewish  nation, 
wherever  they  might  be. 

In  the  synagogue  the  Jew  found  his  Bible, 
the  Old  Testament. 

The  collection,  which  had  grown  gradually  in 
the  post-exihc  age,  was  closed  as  regards  its  main 
contents  about  the  year  130,  as  we  know  from  the 
Prologue  to  the  work  of  Jesus  ben  Sirach.  Of 
its  three  parts,  the  Law,  the  Prophets,  the  Hagio- 
grapha,  i.e.  sacred  writings,  or  K'thuvim,  i.e. 
writings,  the  third  alone  was  still  an  uncertain 
quantity  in  the  time  of  Jesus.  This  may  easily 
be  perceived  in  the  fact  that  in  the  New  Testament 


AND   DISTINCTIONS   WITHIN   IT  Q 

the  writings  of  the  Old  Testament  are  usually 
spoken  of  as  '  Law,'  or  '  Law  and  Prophets.'^ 
Several  of  the  Hagiographa,  for  instance  the  book 
of  Koheleth  or  the  Preacher,  seem  to  have  been 
matters  of  dispute  among  the  contemporaries  of 
Jesus.  The  hmits  of  the  canon  were  not  set 
with  absolute  certainty  until  the  end  of  the  first 
Christian  century.  The  fact  that  various  ad- 
ditions to  it  were  to  be  found  among  the  Jews  of 
Alexandria  is  not  of  any  considerable  significance. 
The  part  which  was  most  important  for  the  re- 
ligious life,  the  Law,  and  alongside  that  the 
Prophets,  were  found  by  the  Jew  everywhere,  in 
the  Greek  version  of  Alexandria,  known  as  the 
Septuagint.  It  was  so  called  because,  according 
to  the  legend,  it  had  been  translated  by  seventy- 
two  learned  Jews  in  an  identical  wording,  although 
each  had  worked  apart.  Hebrew  was  now  under- 
stood only  by  the  learned  ;  the  ordinary  tongue 
used  in  Palestine  was  Syrian  ;  otherwise  Greek 
was  spoken.  These  Biblical  writings,  and  above 
all  the  Law,  had  the  highest  authority.  Every 
word  was  decisive.     The  doctrine  of  Inspiration 

1  An  exception  occurs  in  Luke  24^',  where  the  Alexandrian 
division  is  followed. 


10  UNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH 

was  formed.  God  had  intimated  to  the  authors 
through  his  spirit  not  merely  the  matter,  but 
even  the  very  wording.  This  idea  took  an  especi- 
ally violent  form  in  Alexandrian  Judaism,  where 
the  conception  had  actually  been  reached  which 
represents  the  sacred  writer  as  a  mere  speaking- 
tube  or  pen-holder  of  the  holy  spirit.  It  was 
extended  to  the  Greek  translation. 

And  this  word  of  God  was  read  every  Sabbath 
day,  section  by  section,  in  the  synagogue.  By 
means  of  this  Bible  the  young  life  was  trained  in 
the  schools,  since  school  teaching  meant  essentially 
instruction  in  the  Bible,  together  with  the  learning 
of  prayers  by  heart.  In  the  time  of  Jesus  well- 
ordered  boys'  schools  may  already  have  been  found, 
not  only  in  the  chief  towns.  Jesus  himself  gives 
us  the  decided  impression  that  he  had  known  his 
Bible  well  from  schooldays  onwards.  Knowledge 
of  the  Bible  and  loyalty  to  the  Bible  was  the  mark 
of  the  pious  as  well  as  of  the  cultured  Jew.  How 
strong  was  the  bond  of  union  which  the  nation 
possessed  in  this  book ! 

On  the  other  hand  we  cannot  speak  of  any  fixed 
dogma  in  the  time  of  Jesus.  There  was,  no  doubt, 
a  general  fundamental  conviction  that  the  observ- 


AND   DISTINCTIONS   WITHIN   IT  II 

ance  of  the  Law  was  necessary  to  the  attainment 
of  salvation,  but  it  had  not  been  dogmatically 
formulated.  If  anything  could  be  styled  a  fixed 
Jewish  dogma,  it  would  be  monotheism,  the  belief 
in  one  God.  In  the  '  Shepherd  of  Hermas,' 
which  in  many  respects  betrays  a  Jewish  influence, 
we  read,  '  Before  all  things  believe  that  God  is 
one.'^  In  Palestine  such  a  belief  was  a  matter  of 
course  ;  but  the  Jews  of  the  Diaspora,  amid  their 
Pagan  surroundings,  learned  to  realize  in  quite 
a  new  way  the  immense  importance  of  this  one 
article  of  faith,  so  that  its  counterpart,  a  belief 
in  the  satanic  and  demoniac  origin  of  Pagan 
idolatry,  became  equally  firmly  established.  The 
time  when  a  Resurrection  dogma  might  have 
been  spoken  of  had  already  gone  by.  In  the 
Judaism  of  Palestine,  indeed,  and  in  extensive 
circles  in  the  Diaspora,  it  could  still  be  maintained, 
but  the  Judaism  of  Alexandria,  through  the  mouth 
of  weighty  representatives,  had  rejected  the 
Resurrection.  More  might  be  said  for  a  dogma 
of  Retribution,  since  all  the  late  Jewish  writings, 
except  Ecclesiastes,  are  at  one  in  teaching  Retribu- 
tion after  death.  Finally  it  must  be  pointed  out 
1  Hennas,  Commandments,  I,  i. 


12  UNITY  OF  THE   CHURCH 

that  the  Jewish  Church,  in  contrast,  for  instance, 
with  the  Christian  CathoHc  Church,  possessed  no 
sacraments  which  guarantee  salvation,  and  indeed 
no  guarantee  of  any  sort  except  the  one.  Every- 
body must  fulfil  the  Law  for  himself,  and  sacrifice 
can  only  redeem  certain  definite  derelictions. 
The  solitary  exception  which  might  be  adduced 
is  the  doctrine  of  propitiation  through  suffering, 
and  especially  through  the  death  of  the  righteous 
and  of  martyrs,  who  had  played  so  great  a  part 
since  the  time  of  the  Maccabees^ ;  but  it  is  doubtful 
how  far  this  doctrine  was  known  or  accepted  in 
the  time  of  Jesus.  The  process  by  which  it  after- 
wards assumed  great  importance  was  then  only 
beginning. 2 

But  the  most  striking  evidence  of  the  force  with 
which  the  Jewish  people  itself  felt  its  unity  as  a 
Church  is  the  movement  towards  propaganda, 
towards  the  dissemination  of  the  Jewish  rehgion 
among  the  Gentiles,  a  movement  which  was  at 
work  not  only  in  the  Diaspora,  but  also — if  not 
with   equal   strength — in   Palestine.     It   was   an 

1  Of.  their  remarkable  prominence  in  the  Revelation  of 
John,  69-11,  12II,  1413,  etc, 

2  The  only  passages  which  come  into  account  are  II  Mace. 
73',  IV  Mace.  629,  1^722, 


AND   DISTINCTIONS  WITHIN   IT  I3 

outcome  of  their  common  and  well-founded  sense 
of  the  rehgious  and  moral  superiority  of  Judaism 
to  the  whole  of  Paganism,  even  to  the  renowned 
Hellenistic  culture.  The  Jew  has  something  better 
than  any  heathen  sage  has  ever  offered,  a  pure 
faith  in  God,  an  earnest  and  strict  morality. 
Unfortunately  this  just  conviction  often  made  use, 
in  the  literary  propaganda,  of  very  reprehensible 
methods.  The  Greek  writers  of  the  past,  poets, 
philosophers,  and  historians,  were  made,  in  a 
whole  series  of  coarse  forgeries,  to  bear  testimony 
to  the  truths  of  the  Jewish  faith.  What  an  effect 
it  must  have  if  the  Jewish  religion  was  glorified 
in  verses  of  the  divine  Homer  or  of  Hesiod,  if 
even  ancient  historians  had  drawn  attention  to 
this  incomparable  people !  Above  all  the  Greek 
philosopher  of  widest  influence,  the  great  Plato, 
was  pressed  into  the  cause.  The  Jews  did  not 
shrink  from  representing  him,  together  with 
Heraclitus,  Pythagoras,  and  others,  as  a  disciple 
of  Moses,  and  they  maintained  in  all  seriousness 
that  Greek  philosophy  had  received  its  best 
strength  from  the  Jewish  religion.  In  order  to 
understand  these  strange  doings  we  must  always 
hold  in  mind  the  impression,  from  which  the  Jew 


14  UNITY   OF   THE   CHURCH 

could  never  free  himself,  that  the  loftiest  utter- 
ances of  Greek  philosophers  about  God  and 
morality  were  to  be  found  in  his  own  religion  in 
greater  clearness  and  certainty,  surrounded  with 
the  sheen  of  divine  revelation.  They  seemed 
to  him  but  a  weak  echo  of  the  pristine  diapason. 
And  this  not  merely  assumed  but  real  superiority 
of  the  Jewish  religion  and  morahty  had  a  mighty 
effect  upon  others.  It  was  met  on  the  Pagan  side 
by  the  stronger  and  stronger  longing  of  expiring 
Antiquity  for  religious  satisfaction,  the  hunger  for 
revelation,  true,  certain,  divine  revelation.  What 
a  great  work  of  preparation  had  been  done  by 
the  post-Aristotelean  philosophy,  with  its  ever- 
increasing  interest  in  religious  problems  !  What 
utter  disintegration  had  befallen  the  old,  naive, 
popular  conceptions  !  What  an  effect  the  Greek 
translation  of  the  Old  Testament  must  have  had, 
by  means  of  which  it  was  possible  to  gain  a  real 
insight  into  the  ancient,  sacred  literature  of  the 
Jews  !  As  a  result  of  all  this  the  Jewish  pro- 
paganda met  with  a  remarkable  welcome.  Wher- 
ever there  were  Jewish  communities  a  circle  of 
adherents,  especially  women,  soon  clustered  around 
them.     Philo  says  of  the  Jewish  Law,  '  It  attracts 


AND   DISTINCTIONS  WITHIN   IT  15 

and  converts  all,  barbarians  and  Greeks,  dwellers 
on  the  continent  and  islanders,  races  of  the  East 
and  the  West,  Europeans,  Asiatics,  the  whole 
inhabited  world  from  one  end  to  the  other.'  The 
new  adherents  were  called  '  proselytes  ' — literally, 
'  new-comers.' 

The  current  distinction  which  we  learned  at 
school  between  *  Proselytes  of  the  Gate '  and 
'  Proselytes  of  Righteousness  '^  did  not  arise 
until  much  later,  and  has  nothing  to  do  with 
another  distinction,  which  must  be  recognized 
in  the  time  of  Jesus.  The  Proselytes  were  those 
Gentiles  who  received  circumcision,  underwent  a 
purificatory  immersion  and  made  a  propitiatory 
sacrifice,  and  in  this  way  actually  became  Jews. 
They  can  never  have  been  very  numerous.  We 
must  distinguish  from  them  another  class,  '  those 
that  feared  God,'  that  is  to  say  those  Gentiles 
who  attended  the  synagogue,  accepted  mono- 
theism, and  also  observed  certain  parts  of  the 
Law,  such  as  the  command  of  the  Sabbath.  They 
existed  in  great  numbers,  and  formed  the  chief 
result  of  the  Jewish  propaganda.     At  this  point 

1  Aliens   resident   in   Palestine ;     and   Gentiles   who   had 
become  Jews. 


l6  UNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH 

we  must  at  least  refer  to  the  enormous  importance 
of  these  '  God-fearing '  people  for  the  Christian 
mission.  Paul,  on  his  missionary  journeys,  made 
true  disciples  among  those  adherents  of  Judaism. 
They  prepared  a  fostering  soil  for  Christian  ideas. 
And  these  '  God-fearing '  men  had  not  those 
obstinate  prejudices  which  characterized  the  Jews. 
The  extent  to  which  the  missionary  movement  was 
astir  even  amid  the  Judaism  of  Palestine  at  that 
time  is  evinced  by  the  saying  of  Jesus,  that  the 
Pharisees  compassed  sea  and  land  to  make  one 
proselyte.^  This  movement  towards  expansion 
was  at  length  crippled  by  the  growth  of  fanaticism 
hostile  to  Rome,  and  finally  by  the  unrestrained 
bitterness  of  feeling  which  prevailed  after  the 
fall  of  Jerusalem. 

By  this  propaganda,'  together  with  the  exclusive- 
ness  of  the  Jews  and  their  claim  to  religious  and 
moral  superiority,  that  anti-Semitic  feehng  was 
engendered  which  deepened  into  passionate  perse- 
cutions of  the  Jews,  and  is  well  known  to  us  in 
Greek  and  Roman  writers.  Tacitus  has  given  us 
a  celebrated  picture  of  the  Jews  in  the  fifth  book 
of  his  History.  He  depicts  them  indeed  as  the 
1  Matt.  23I6. 


AND   DISTINCTIONS   WITHIN   IT  I7 

most  repulsive  race,  the  most  despicable  section 
of  the  subjugated  peoples,  and  throughout  all  his 
remarks  there  breathes  such  a  note  of  disdain  that 
they  give  us  the  best  possible  measure  of  the 
embittered  feeling  of  that  age.  Judaism  was 
actually  felt  as  a  dangerous  power.  But  amid  it 
all  we  can  clearly  perceive  the  impression  from 
which  even  the  Gentiles  could  not  escape,  that  in 
spite  of  its  dispersion  over  the  globe  the  Jewish 
people  formed  a  spiritual  unity,  which  pressed 
victoriously  forward. 

Up  to  this  point  we  have  fixed  our  regard 
exclusively  upon  the  factors  which  prove  the 
ecclesiastical  unity  of  the  Judaism  of  that  time. 
Nevertheless  we  may  take  it  for  granted  that  here, 
as  everywhere  in  life,  we  shall  find  certain  differ- 
ences within  the  unity  itself. 

We  have  already  had  occasion  to  hint  at  differ- 
ences between  the  Jews  in  and  outside  Palestine, 
with  reference,  for  instance,  to  belief  in  the 
Resurrection.  Now  we  must  lay  direct  emphasis 
on  the  fact  that  considerable  divergences  from  the 
Judaism  of  Palestine  were  developed  among  the 
Jews  of  the  Diaspora,  not  merely  on  their  whole 
outer  mode  of  life — as  in  constant   intercourse 

c 


l8  UNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH 

with  Gentiles,  exclusive  use  of  the  Greek  language, 
preponderance  of  the  mercantile  profession — but 
also  in  rehgion.  Much  of  what  was  still  in  full 
vigour  in  Palestine  had  perforce,  amid  heathen 
surroundings,  to  give  way — regulations  of  the 
Law,  requirements  of  worship,  part  of  which,  such 
as  a  number  of  precepts  concerning  purification, 
could  only  be  carried  out  when  the  Temple  was 
accessible.  Some  elements,  again,  which  existed 
in  Palestine,  came  out  into  special  prominence 
through  contrast  with  an  utterly  dissimilar  en- 
vironment— for  instance,  monotheism  and  the 
moral  demands.  In  this  way,  gently  and  insen- 
sibly, there  came  to  pass  a  remarkable  simplification 
of  the  religion.  The  legal  and  ceremonial  part  was 
not  indeed  disavowed,  but  its  demands  on  a  number 
of  matters  necessarily  fell  into  the  background, 
while  the  numerous  separate  religious  conceptions 
tended  to  crystalhze  around  certain  prominent 
points.  It  is  obvious  that  the  Jews  outside 
Palestine  were  much  more  exposed  to  foreign 
influences  than  those  of  Palestine.  Nevertheless 
these  Jews  of  the  Diaspora  remained  Jews,  felt 
themselves  to  be  Jews,  strictly  observed  the 
ceremonial  law,   kept   their   Sabbath   and   their 


AND   DISTINCTIONS   WITHIN   IT  I9 

feasts.  So  far  as  we  know  there  was  only  one 
point  in  the  Diaspora,  Alexandria,  where  the 
difference  grew  really  deep.  The  fourth  book  of 
the  Maccabees,  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  Aristo- 
bulus,  and,  above  all,  Philo  show  us  that  there  were 
circles  among  the  Alexandrian  Jews  which  had 
entered  into  so  close  an  alliance  with  Greek  culture 
that  we  often  do  not  know  whether  we  are  dealing 
with  Jews  or  Greeks.  True,  even  a  man  Hke 
Philo  did  not  wish  to  be  anything  but  a  Jew  ;  his 
philosophy  takes  the  form  of  an  explanation  of 
the  Mosaic  law  ;  but  it  really  was  something  new, 
an  attempt  to  unite  Jewish  religion  and  Greek 
culture,  which  did  not  do  justice  to  either.  It  is 
not  our  task  to  deal  more  closely  with  these 
Alexandrian  Jews  and  their  views.  That  has 
been  done  in  another  book  in  this  series.^  They 
do  not  concern  the  religion  with  which  Jesus  came 
in  contact.  It  is  possible,  to  me  it  seems  even 
probable,  that  through  their  means  Greek  thoughts 
occasionally  percolated  through  to  the  Jews  in 
Palestine,  but  this  process  cannot  be  certainly 
traced.     It  is  conceivable,  for  instance,  that  Jesus' 

1  '  The  Preparation  for  Christianity  in  Greek  Philosophy,' 
by  Prof.  Pfleiderer,  pp.  60-66. 


20  UNITY   OF  THE   CHURCH 

saying,  '  God  alone  is  good,'^  was  connected  in 
this  way  with  the  Greek  idea  of  God  as  the  highest 
perfection.  But  on  such  points  we  cannot  be 
certain.  On  the  whole  it  cannot  be  shown  that 
Alexandria  influenced  Jesus  ;  it  was  afterwards, 
on  the  other  hand,  of  world-wide  importance  in 
the  development  of  Christian  theology. 

If  we  turn  our  gaze  upon  the  Judaism  of 
Palestine,  which,  besides  being  the  only  Judaism 
which  affects  Jesus,  was  also  the  real  centre  of 
gravity  of  the  Jewish  religion,  we  find  here  also  a 
number  of  distinctions  which  must  be  recognized. 
The  circles  which  dominate  the  religious  and 
ecclesiastical  life  are  not,  as  might  have  been 
expected,  the  priests,  but  the  theologians  :  for 
that,  more  than  anything  else,  is  what  the  '  scribes  ' 
are.  A  learned  acquaintance  with  the  Mosaic 
law  is  their  profession.  But  since  the  Law  is  also 
the  book  of  ordinary  jurisprudence  these  men  are 
also  the  jurists,  the  lawyers  of  their  time.  It  is 
true  that  the  Law,  in  this  sense,  was  to  be  found 
in  the  five  books  of  Moses,  but  it  must  be  applied 
to  the  needs  of  the  present  time  ;  and  this  opened 
out  a  rich  field  of  work  for  learned  acumen.  In 
1  Mark  loi^. 


AND   DISTINCTIONS   WITHIN   IT  21 

this  way  through  the  labours  of  the  scribes  there 
was  gradually  formed  a  new  customary  law 
alongside  the  written  Law,  the  so-called  Halacha, 
'  what  is  usual.'  This  new  tradition  professed  to 
be  no  more  than  an  exposition  and  application  of 
the  letter  of  the  Law,  an  exposition  for  which 
quite  definite  rules,  formulated  by  the  scribe 
Hillel,  were  introduced.  But  in  reality  it  was  an 
extension  of  the  Law,  such  as  tended  more  and 
more  to  thrust  the  scripture  itself  into  the  back- 
ground, and  was  of  the  highest  importance,  be- 
cause it  kept  touch  with  the  requirements  of 
practical  life.  At  first  a  merely  oral  tradition,  it 
was  afterwards  reduced  to  writing  ;  the  fact  that 
it  was  said  to  have  been  handed  down  from  the 
time  of  Moses  is  the  clearest  evidence  of  the  high 
value  ascribed  to  it.  Since  the  scribes  were 
chained  to  the  sacred  text,  they  always  laboured 
under  a  certain  constraint,  which  could  only  be 
overcome  by  the  most  arbitrary  methods  of 
exegesis.  Those  parts  of  the  Old  Testament 
which  are  not  of  a  legal  character  were  more 
freely  worked  over ;  the  scribes  simply  read  into 
the  text  what  the  views  of  a  later  age  demanded. 
For   instance,   the   course   of   past   history   was 


22  UNITY  OF  THE   CHURCH 

depicted  as,  according  to  present  ideas,  it  ought 
to  have  run  ;  an  excellent  example  of  this  method 
is  to  be  found  within  the  Old  Testament  itself,  in 
the  two  books  of  the  Chronicles,  as  compared  with 
the  books  of  Samuel.  The  moral  and  religious 
utterances  of  the  sacred  scripture  were  treated 
in  the  same  way.  They  were  twisted  or  supple- 
mented until  they  conformed  to  modern  concep- 
tions. The  whole  of  this  transformation  and 
adornment  of  the  non-legal  parts  of  scripture  was 
called  Haggada,  '  narration.'  By  means  of  this 
Mishna — literally  '  repetition,'  in  the  sense  of 
'  teaching ' — as  set  forth  in  the  Halacha  and 
Haggada,  the  customary  law  and  the  new,  imagi- 
native narration,  the  Old  Testament  was  more 
and  more  thickly  overgrown  with  the  creeping 
plants  of  tradition  and  human  ordinances.  A 
fateful  development !  The  piety  which  was  built 
upon  this  tradition  could  not  escape  being  as  arti- 
ficial, mechanical,  fantastic,  and  often  puerile  as  its 
foundation.  Jesus  felt  this  very  clearly,  and  ex- 
pressed himself  with  extreme  severity  against  the 
tradition  :  '  Right  well  do  you  repudiate  the  com- 
mandment of  God,  to  keep  your  own  tradition.'^ 

1  Mark  7^  ;    the  whole  section,  7^-^^,  should  be  read. 


AND   DISTINCTIONS  WITHIN   IT  23 

The  guardians  of  this  portentous  growth  were  the 
scribes  ;  and  at  the  time  of  Jesus'  appearance 
their  influence  dominated  the  people  at  all  points. 
This  was  the  outcome  of  a  long  historical  process. 
In  the  post-exiUc  Jewish  community,  at  the 
beginning  of  which  the  learning  of  Ezra  stands 
prominently  forth,  piety  and  wisdom  had  gradually 
become  merged  and  confounded.  The  '  pious 
sage  '  displaced  the  prophet.  The  more  definitely 
post-exilic  Judaism,  which  gathered  about  the 
Law,  became  a  book-religion,  the  greater  the  im- 
portance which  the  learned  man,  the  sage,  must 
gain.  And  even  though  in  the  sayings  of  Jesus, 
son  of  Sirach,  this  wisdom  still  showed  a  free 
outlook  and  wide  horizon,  it  was  inevitable  that 
it  should  grow  narrower  and  narrower.  In  the 
time  of  Jesus  the  man  who  knows  the  Law  is  the 
only  true  sage.  From  the  close  of  the  Maccabean 
period  particular  names  among  these  scribes  begin 
to  stand  out  more  clearly.  The  most  renowned 
are  Hillel  and  Shammai,  heads  of  contrasted 
schools,  and  contemporaries  of  Jesus.  The  differ- 
ences between  the  two  are  by  no  means  formidable  • 
they  have  to  do  with  trifles,  which  seem  to  us 
ridiculous — for  instance,  the  question  whether  on 


24  UNITY   OF  THE   CHURCH 

a  feast-day  a  ladder,  which  is  leaning  against  a 
dovecot,  may  be  carried  across  to  another  dovecot 
— but  they  show  into  what  dreariness  and  deadness 
a  religion  under  such  leadership  must  fall,  how  the 
life  of  it  must  simply  be  crushed  out.  Hillel  was, 
on  the  whole,  the  milder  of  the  two  ;  he  also 
advocated  the  mission  to  the  Gentiles  ;  Shammai 
was  more  severe.  Besides  these  two  the  teacher 
of  the  apostle  Paul,  Gamaliel,  is  especially  well 
known  to  us  through  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.^ 

The  scribes  often  gathered  around  them  in  the 
schoolroom  a  large  number  of  pupils,  whom  they 
instructed  thoroughly,  free  of  charge.  (This 
regulation  was,  however,  evaded. )2  Here  it  was 
that  the  new  generation  of  learning  was  reared. 
The  ideal  was  to  engrave  in  the  pupils'  memory 
the  exact  words  of  the  Master.  To  our  way  of 
thinking  the  instruction,  with  its  eternal  repeti- 
tion, was  mechanical,  and  ill  designed  to  develop 
individual  character.  The  influence  of  the  scribes, 
again,  extended  far  beyond  the  walls  of  the 
schoolroom.  As  experts  in  the  current  law  they 
had  in  their  hands,  as  a  rule,  the  decision  of  actual 

1  Acts  223 ;  cf.  534.39, 

2  Jesus  even  reproaches  them  with  greed  of  gain ;    e.g.,- 
Mark  12*0,  Matt.  2325, 


AND   DISTINCTIONS   WITHIN   IT  2$ 

cases  in  the  workaday  world  ;^  they  had  a  leading 
voice  in  the  Sjmagogue.  Wherever,  in  fact, 
advice  was  needed  in  questions  which  must  be 
decided  by  means  of  the  Old  Testament  their 
assistance  was  sought.  They  were  treated  every- 
where with  the  utmost  deference,  and  addressed 
as  Rabbi, '  my  master,'  which  subsequently  became 
an  actual  title.  Many  resigned  themselves  very 
readily  to  such  marks  of  esteem,  or  even  demanded 
them.  Beyond  all  doubt  the  picture  which  Jesus 
gives  is  painted  from  the  life  :  '  They  love  the  first 
couch  at  banquets  and  the  first  seat  in  the  syna- 
gogue and  the  salutations  in  public  squares,  and 
to  be  addressed  by  people  as  "  my  master."  '^ 
In  fact,  then,  the  remark  of  Jesus  is  not  too 
strongly  phrased,  '  the  scribes  and  the  Pharisees 
have  set  themselves  on  the  chair  of  Moses. '^ 

Jesus  here  makes  mention,  beside  the  scribes, 
of  another  special  group,  that  of  the  Pharisees. 
Over  and  over  again  in  the  gospels  we  find  the 
scribes  and  Pharisees  together.  And  the  con- 
nexion between  the  two  is  of  the  closest,  even 
though  they  do  not  coincide.    '  Scribe  '  is  the  more 

1  Even  in  the  highest  Jewish  Court,  the  Sanhedrin,  they  had 
a  preponderating  influence. 

2  Matt.  236  sq.  3  Matt.  232. 


26  UNITY   OF   THE   CHURCH 

inclusive  term.  There  certainly  were  scribes  who 
belonged  to  another  group  whose  acquaintance 
we  shall  make,  that  of  the  Sadducees.  The 
Pharisees  are  the  people  who  desire,  in  daily  Ufe, 
to  follow  exactly  the  directions  of  the  scribes,  the 
specifically  '  reUgious  '  folk,  the  '  godly  '  of  that 
age  :  but — in  sharp  contrast  to  the  godly  of  past 
times,  who  had  been  oppressed  by  the  rich  and  by 
evildoers — now  the  ruling  class.  Their  chief  task 
was  to  carry  out,  in  the  strictest  and  most  scru- 
pulous manner,  the  requirements  of  the  Law 
together  with  the  whole  oral  tradition,  in  the 
form  which  the  labour  of  the  scribes  had  given  it. 
These  '  godly '  were  regarded  by  the  people  as 
something  set  apart,  as  patterns  of  godliness  :  a 
fact  which  is  proved  by  the  name  '  Pharisees,' 
which  was  probably  attached  to  them  by  op- 
ponents. It  means  the  '  separated,'  that  is,  those 
who  are  distinguished  from  the  bulk  of  the  people 
by  being  peculiarly  pure  and  godly.  They  called 
themselves  Haberim,  '  comrades,'  and  this  name 
shows  that  they  did  not  recognize  every  Jew  as 
a  comrade  ;^  the  answer  they  gave  to  the  question, 
'  Who  is  my  neighbour  ?  '^  was  this  :   '  The  group 

1  As  the  Old  Testament  enjoins.  *  Luke  lo^'. 


AND    DISTINCTIONS   WITHIN   IT  ^^ 

of  those  who  realize  most  strictly  the  ideal  of  legal 
purity  and  piety.'  (According  to  Josephus  this 
group  numbered  six  thousand.)  They  were  con- 
scious of  being  the  elite  of  the  people.  It  is  self- 
evident  that  this  must  often  have  led  to  hypo- 
critical arrogance.  The  extremely  sharp  polemic  of 
Jesus  against  the  Pharisees^  has  indeed  had  such 
an  effect  that,  to  the  popular  mind,  a  Pharisee 
and  a  hypocrite  are  one  and  the  same  thing.  But 
we  must  be  on  our  guard  against  a  mistaken 
generalization.  It  is  certain  that  the  piety  of 
many  Pharisees  was  of  a  thoroughly  earnest  kind  ; 
they  spared  themselves  not  at  all.  Any  other 
verdict  would  do  grievous  injustice  not  only  to 
men  like  Hillel  and  Gamaliel,  but  also  to  innumer- 
able others.  But  this  only  brings  out  more  clearly 
the  fact  that  those  types  which  forced  them- 
selves to  the  front  in  public  life,  carried  piety  to 
market  and  demanded  the  admiration  of  the  crowd, 
were  justly  scourged  by  Jesus  as  hypocrites. 
There  is  also  no  reason  to  doubt  that  at  the 
time  of  Jesus'  ministry  the  morbid  and  repulsive 
forms  of  Pharisaic  godliness  were  so  preponderant 
that,  in  a  general  review,  no  others  needed  to  be 

1  Cf.  especially  Matt.  23. 


28  UNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH 

considered.  At  the  same  time  the  piercing  eye  of 
Jesus  could  perceive  and  duly  estimate  the  danger 
of  arrogance  and  vainglory  to  which  this  ideal  of 
piety  must  under  all  circumstances  be  exposed. 
In  other  matters,  besides  their  conspicuous 
legalism,  the  Pharisees  stood  as  representatives  of 
orthodox  belief ;  this  might  indeed  be  deduced 
from  their  essential  character  ;  they  shared  all 
the  conceptions  of  their  time  with  regard  to  angels 
and  spirits,  and  believed  in  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead.i  The  very  questionable  account  of 
them  in  Josephus^  gives  no  sure  ground  for 
deciding  what  they  thought  concerning  the  divine 
providence  and  human  free  will.  In  any  case  the 
Pharisees  were  not  a  special  religious  school  in 
Judaism,  though  they  have  often  been  so  repre- 
sented, but  simply  a  party  which  stood  for  the 
ideal  of  the  legaHstic  Jews,  as  the  course  of 
development  had  shaped  it — the  ideal,  in  fact,  for 
which  every  Jew  ought  to  stand.  It  is  also  a 
mistake  to  regard  the  Pharisees  as  a  political 
party.      Their  history,    it   is   true,   often   shows 

^  Acts  238. 

2  Josephus  tries,  in  accordance  with  the  taste  of  his  readers, 
to  depict  the  Pharisees,  Sadducees,  Essenes,  and  Zealots  as 
philosophical  schools. 


AND   DISTINCTIONS   WITHIN   IT  29 

them  involved  in  political  affairs.  The  earhest 
beginnings  known  to  us  of  what  afterwards 
became  the  Pharisaic  group,  namely  the  so-called 
Assidaeans  ('  the  pious ')  of  the  Maccabean  time, 
stood  in  close  connexion  with  the  fighters  for 
freedom,  but  only  because  the  existence  of 
legalistic  piety  was  at  stake.  After  the  founda- 
tion, however,  of  a  Maccabean  dynasty,  which 
had  the  conduct  of  politics  in  its  own  hands,  the 
Assidseans  severed  the  connexion,  and  a  bitter 
opposition  arose  between  the  two,  as  we  learn 
especially  from  the  Psalms  of  Solomon.  This 
began  under  Hyrcanus,  and  reached  its  climax 
under  Alexander  Jannaeus.  But  the  Pharisees 
were  able  to  endure  the  government  of  Herod, 
and  even  the  Roman  overlordship.  They  had  no 
necessary  concern  with  poHtics.  They  would 
tolerate  any  kind  of  rule,  so  long  as  no  hindrance 
was  offered  to  the  exercise  of  their  godliness.  A 
group,  however,  which  was  in  a  certain  sense  an 
offshoot  from  them,^  pursued  purely  political 
ends ;  these  were  the  Zealots, ^  who  sought, 
weapon  in  hand,  to  bring  about  by  force  the  great 

1  The  Pharisee  Zadduk  was  one  of  its  founders. 

2  The  'men  of  violence,'  Matt,  ii^^,  are  Zealots. 


30  UNITY  OF  THE   CHURCH 

change,  the  opening  of  a  new  era,  the  coming  of 
the  kingdom  of  God.  But  these  revolutionaries, 
who  set  up  the  false  Messiahs  that  led  to  the 
catastrophe  of  70  a.d,,  must  by  no  means  be  looked 
on  as  analogous  to  the  Pharisees.  Their  develop- 
ment led,  from  the  starting-point,  in  a  quite 
different  direction. 

The  Pharisees  stood  in  contrast  on  the  one  hand 
to  the  common  people  and  on  the  other  hand  to 
the  Sadducees.  The  folk  from  whom  the  Com- 
rades distinguished  themselves  were  the  'Am-ha- 
ares,  the  '  people  of  the  land.'  The  Pharisee  looked 
with  disdain  on  the  indifferent,  uncultivated 
throng,  which  did  not  even  know  the  Law  and  the 
Tradition,  not  to  say  observe  them  both  punctili- 
ously. It  was  the  '  accursed  multitude.'^  Thus 
the  expression  *Am-ha-ares,'  which  is  used  in  the 
Old  Testament,  without  any  dishonourable  associa- 
tion, of  the  people  as  distinct  from  the  government, 
became  a  term  of  abuse,  which  was  afterwards  ap- 
plied even  to  individuals — '  he  is  an  'Am-ha-ares.' 
This  rabble,  then,  included  all  the  uncultured  and 
indifferent,  but  especially  the  notorious  sinners 
and  the  hated  '  publicans,'  who  had  debased 
1  John  749. 


AND   DISTINCTIONS  WITHIN   IT  31 

themselves  to  become  tools  of  the  foreign  govern- 
ment in  the  collection  of  taxes.  This  explains  the 
huge  offence  which  the  Pharisees  took  at  the 
association  of  Jesus  with  the  dregs  of  the  people. 
Such  disdain  was  to  be  found,  at  first,  only  on 
the  side  of  the  Pharisees.  The  lower  strata  of 
the  people  seem  nevertheless  to  have  looked  up 
with  a  sort  of  timid  admiration  to  the  guardians 
of  the  Law  and  of  godliness.  But  little  by  little 
a  sense  of  irritation  and  hostility  grew  up,  natur- 
ally enough,  on  the  other  side.  The  evidence  for 
this,  however,  belongs  to  a  later  time. 

The  Pharisees  were  not  only  contrasted  with 
those  below  them  but  also  with  those  above  them, 
for  they  stood  in  opposition  to  the  Sadducees, 
who  represented  the  priestly  nobility.  These  were 
members  of  the  leading  sacerdotal  famihes,  and 
their  name  of  Sadducees,  '  those  belonging  to 
Sadduk,'  was  most  probably  intended  to  imply 
descent  from  the  old  priestly  family  of  Zadok.^ 
They  were  probably  not  united  into  a  special 
group  until  the  formation  of  the  Pharisaic  party 
gave  occasion  for  such  a  union.  Not  that  that 
party  was  in  itself  antagonistic  to  the  priests ; 
1  Cf.  I  Kings  236. 


33  UNITY   OF   THE   CHURCH 

on  the  contrary,  it  performed  all  legal  duties 
towards  them  with  the  utmost  fidehty.  Still  it 
is  easily  intelligible  that,  in  view  of  the  growing 
influence  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees,  the  old 
noble  famihes,  from  which  the  higher  priests 
were  drawn,  felt  compelled  to  take  up  a  hostile 
attitude,  since  they  saw  their  own  leading  position 
in  danger.  Since  the  Exile  the  high-priest  had 
been  at  the  same  time  the  ruler  of  the  people, 
and  the  foremost  of  his  colleagues  had  been  the 
diplomatic  body,  who  conducted  political  affairs. 
It  was  highly  important  for  them  to  keep  the 
people  under  their  influence,  and  any  diminution 
of  it  threatened  their  position.  Hence  arose  their 
opposition  to  the  Pharisees,  which  again  shaped 
the  course  of  the  priests  themselves  ;  for  it  is  this 
which  explains  the  fact  that  they  recognized  only 
the  written  Law,  and  rejected  the  whole  tradition 
of  which  the  Pharisees  were  champions.  For  the 
same  reason  they  did  not  accept  the  new  ortho- 
doxy, especially  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  nor 
yet  the  belief  in  angels  and  demons.  As  regards 
religion,  then,  they  certainly  stood  at  the  time  of 
Jesus  behind  their  age,  and  below  the  level  of  the 
popular  faith  ;    in  other  matters,  however,  they 


AND   DISTINCTIONS   WITHIN   IT  33 

were  more  far-sighted,  and,  it  must  be  confessed, 
more  worldly.     They  tried  to  live  in  peace  with 
the   Roman   dominion,   and  had  no   reason   for 
desiring  a  change.     They  were   also   the   party 
most  accessible  to  contemporary  culture,  though 
not  in  the  same  degree  as  formerly  in  the  Graeco- 
Syrian  time,  when  they  had  even  looked  with 
complacency  on  the  attempts  of  such  a  man  as 
Antiochus  Epiphanes.     That  was  no  longer  pos- 
sible, since  in  Jesus'  time  the  Pharisees  had  already 
gained  such  a  grasp  of  the  reins  that  the  Sadducees 
must   always   take  them  into   account,   if  they 
wished  to  be  any  longer  tolerated  by  the  people. 
The  power  which  they  still  possessed  lay  simply 
in  the  prestige  of  the  Temple  worship,  which  the 
Law  enjoined,  and  in  political  affairs,  which  no 
one  else  understood.     When  both  of  these  came 
to  an  end  in  70  a.d.  the  Sadducees  disappeared 
also,  without  leaving  a  trace,  while  the  scribes 
remained,  and  enjoyed  an  undivided  supremacy. 
We  have  now  only  one  more  group  to  consider, 
a  group   which  stands   insulated  like   a   foreign 
body  in  the  midst  of  Judaism,  the  only  one  which 
breaks  the  uniformity  of  the  Church,  namely,  the 
Essenes.     The  name  probably  means  '  the  pious.' 

D 


34  UNITY  OF  THE   CHURCH 

Fifteen  years  ago  it  was  possible  to  doubt  the 
existence  of  this  group,  or  at  least  to  despair  of 
gaining  any  certain  knowledge  about  them.  The 
credibihty  of  the  most  important  authorities, 
Philo  and  Josephus,  was  at  that  time  grievously 
shaken  ;  but  to-day  they  may  be  regarded  as 
substantially  reinstated.  We  must,  however,  in 
Philo's  case,  allow  for  the  way  in  which  he  tries 
to  exhibit  the  Essenes  as  approaching  his  own 
philosophy  and  method,  and  in  that  of  Josephus 
for  the  somewhat  strong  Greek  colouring  which, 
in  deference  to  his  Graeco-Roman  public,  he  throws 
over  them.  A  critical  examination  of  these  sources 
leads  us  to  characterize  the  Essenes  as  a  mon- 
astic order,  a  fellowship  with  a  special  type  of 
worship,  a  mystic  society.  On  Jewish  soil  they 
are  the  only  example  of  monasticism,  such  as  is 
to  be  found  in  other  religions,  for  instance  the 
Egyptian,  Buddhist,  and  Christian.  There  were 
about  four  thousand  of  them  in  the  towns  and 
villages  of  Palestine,  men  only,  Hving  in  special 
houses,  in  order  to  separate  themselves  from  their 
compatriots  and  devote  themselves  to  a  pure 
and  holy  hfe.  The  novice  must  serve  a  probation 
of  three  years  before  being  admitted,  by  a  strict 


AND  DISTINCTIONS  WITHIN   IT  35 

VOW,  into  the  order,  in  which  all  the  members 
were  bound  together,  under  the  rule  of  superiors, 
by  community  of  goods — all  private  possessions 
were  given  up  ;  money,  food,  and  clothing  were 
held  in  common — and  by  a  definite  regulation  of 
the  daily  life.  Field  work  and  handiwork  were 
framed  about  with  prayer,  ablutions,  and  refec- 
tions. Their  leading  conceptions  were  simplicity, 
temperance,  and,  above  all,  purity ;  they  wore  a 
white  habit,  bathed  often,  avoided  all  pollution 
with  the  utmost  care,  and  rejected  marriage — 
probably  to  escape  the  defilement  incident  to 
association  with  the  other  sex.  In  certain  ways 
the  Essenes  present  the  aspect  of  a  separate 
community  of  worshippers  ;  they  took  no  part  in 
the  Jewish  sacrificial  worship,  and  rejected  sacri- 
fice altogether  ;  baths  and  repasts  played  a  great 
part  in  their  life  :  both  were  sacred  acts.  Before 
every  meal  eaten  in  common  a  cold  bath  must 
be  taken.  Novices  were  not  admitted  to  the 
bath  for  the  first  year.  The  purpose  of  these 
baths  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  ordinary  cleansing 
power  of  water,  but  with  a  mysterious,  sacra- 
mental consecration  of  the  whole  man  through 
its  means.     This  explains  how  in  cases  where 


36  UNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH 

no  external  uncleanliness  came  into  question,  as 
when  a  full  member  of  the  order  happened  to 
touch  a  novice,  the  cold  bath  was  enjoined.  In 
the  same  way  the  common  repast,  prepared  by 
the  priest  of  the  order,  and  partaken  of  in  festal 
attire,  was  an  act  of  worship.  No  stranger  might 
take  part  in  it.  It  was  opened  and  closed  with 
prayer.  Solemn  stillness  reigned,  as  at  some 
mystery.  These  acts  of  worship  all  point  in  the 
direction  of  a  mystic  society  ;  and  finally  we  must 
mention  the  secret  writings  and  secret  doctrine, 
which  belong  to  the  essence  of  a  mystic  society, 
and  were  also  found  among  the  Essenes.  It  is  a 
very  vexed  question  how  this  remarkable  product 
of  the  Jewish  religion  came  into  being.  All  that  is 
certain  at  present  is  that,  though  the  fundamental 
character  of  the  Essenes  was  Jewish,  there  are 
unmistakable  traces  of  the  influence  of  foreign 
religions.  The  Jewish  element  is  seen  in  their 
monotheism,  their  reverence  for  the  Mosaic  Law, 
their  strict  observance  of  the  Sabbath.  Even  their 
punctilious  concern  for  purity  connects  them  closely 
with  the  Pharisaic  party.  On  the  other  hand 
their  rejection  of  marriage,  anointing,  and  sacrifice 
is  not  Jewish,  nor  yet  their  doctrine  of  the  im- 


AND   DISTINCTIONS   WITHIN   IT  37 

mortality  of  the  soul ;  least  of  all  their  invoca- 
tion of  the  sun.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  what 
they  beheld  in  the  sun  was  the  divine  splendour, 
and  this  idea  underlies  their  anxious  precautions 
not  to  offend  it  by  lack  of  reverence.  It  is  ques- 
tionable whether  their  repudiation  of  slavery  and  of 
the  oath  can  conceivably  be  Jewish.  We  are  not 
yet  able  to  say  with  certainty  whence  the  foreign 
elements  to  be  observed  among  the  Essenes  were 
derived.  Some  investigators  speak  of  contact 
with  Greek  (particularly  neo-Pythagoraean  and 
Orphic)  religion,  others  of  the  influence  of  oriental 
religions,  especially  the  Persian,  Babylonian,  and 
Mandsean.  This  second  theory  has  already  se- 
cured a  preponderance  of  authority.  The  pos- 
sibility of  such  a  phenomenon  as  that  of  the 
Essenes  in  Palestine  is  one  of  the  strongest  proofs 
of  the  influence  of  foreign  religions,  and  the  degree 
in  which  it  was  exerted  even  in  the  mother-land 
of  Judaism.  This  must  be  kept  in  mind  when  we 
consider  certain  points  which  we  have  not  yet 
touched. 

Now  that  we  have  finished  our  survey  of  the 
differences  which  existed  in  Judaism,  we  come 
back  to  the  unity  with  which  we  started.     The 


38  UNITY  OF  THE  CHURCH 

question  at  once  arises  along  what  paths  the 
doctrine  and  piety  of  this  Jewish  Church  took  its 
course.  The  exposition  given  in  the  following 
chapter  deals  chiefly  with  the  point  of  view  of 
the  scribes  and  Pharisees,  but  only  because  theirs 
was  the  chief  pervasive  and  directive  force  within 
the  church. 


Chapter  II 

DOCTRINE  AND  PIETY  IN  THE  CHURCH 

The  two  poles  of  all  religion,  are  God  and  manj 
We  will  ask  first  of  all  what  was  the  nature  of  the 
Jewish  beUef  in  God,  as  it  had  taken  shape  in  the 
thought  and  piety  of  the  Church  at  the  time  of 
Jesus.  The  most  striking  fact  is  that  God  had 
been  set,  as  it  were,  at  a  remote  distance,  and 
severed  from  man,  and  from  the  world  at  large, 
by  a  deep  chasm.  He  sits  enthroned,  unapproach- 
able, in  the  heavens.  At  the  thought  of  God 
the  pious  soul  is  filled  with  holy  awe.  The  con- 
tinual effacement  of  those  ingloriously  human 
lineaments  in  God  which  w^re  to  be  read  of  in 
the  Old  Testament  can  be  understood  and  de- 
fended as  a  merit,  implicit  in  a  more  spiritual 
conception  ;  but  the  real  far-removedness  of  God 
is  seen  in  the  fact  that  God's  proper  name,  Jahweh, 


40        DOCTRINE   AND   PIETY   IN   THE   CHURCH 

was  used  less  and  less  in  the  post-exilic  age,  and 
at  last  might  not  be  uttered  at  all.  It  became  a 
secret  name  ;  it  was  only  used  in  the  Temple 
worship.  Instead  of  it  general  expressions  such 
as  the  Holy,  the  Almighty,  the  Sublime,  the 
Great,  the  Lord  of  Heaven,  the  Lord  of  Lords, 
the  King  of  Kings,  the  Glory,  the  Great  Majesty, 
were  used,  and  also  the  simple  word  '  Heaven.' 
This  is  the  meaning  of  the  word  in  Jesus' 
parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  :  '  Father,  I  have 
sinned  against  heaven  (that  is,  against  God) 
and  before  thee.'^  The  '  Kingdom  of  God '  and 
the  '  Kingdom  of  Heaven '  in  the  Gospels  are 
therefore  the  same  thing.  This  extrusion  of  the 
old  name  of  Jahweh,  the  pronunciation  of  which 
was  then  forgotten,  was  by  no  means  an  insig- 
nificant matter.  With  the  personal  name  the 
personal  nearness  of  God  is  lost.  God  grows 
paler,  fainter,  more  remote.  Belief  in  a  present 
Deity,  glad  faith  in  a  God  that  manifests  himself 
in  actual  experience,  is  much  more  rarely  to  be 
found.  Occasionally,  in  times  of  national  exalta- 
tion, it  shines  forth  with  its  ancient  power,  as  for 
example  during  the  Maccabean  war  of  liberty, ^ 
1  Luke  1518  and  21.  2  Cf.  I  Mace. 


DOCTRINE  AND  PIETY  IN  THE  CHURCH        4I 

but  these  are  exceptional  moments.^  As  a  rule 
God  stands  far  aloof  from  the  present  time.  No 
doubt  this  is  closely  connected  with  the  fact 
that  the  present  time  was  nearly  always  so  sad 
and  gloomy  that  none  could  summon  up  courage 
to  hold  such  a  faith.  Indeed,  even  the  old  faith 
in  the  past,  faith  in  the  '  God  of  the  fathers ' — 
a  favourite  term — who  had  manifested  himself  in 
the  choosing  and  historical  guidance  of  the  Jewish 
people,  in  the  Covenant  of  Sinai  and  the  giving 
of  the  Law,  in  the  worship  and  the  promises,^  is 
rather  an  accepted  heritage,  piously  transmitted, 
than  a  hving  good,  fruitful  for  the  life  of  to-day. 
The  roots  of  the  belief  in  God  are  now  planted 
altogether  in  the  future.  Its  fundamental  note 
is,  God  will  reveal  himself  out  of  the  heavens, 
God  will  save,  will  raise  from  the  dead,  will  judge 
the  world.  The  time  till  then  is,  as  Paul  phrases 
it,  a  time  which  God  overlooks,  a  time  of  divine 
long-suffering.  And  so,  instead  of  a  powerful 
confidence  in  the  felt  nearness  of  God,  speculation 
spreads  her  wings,   to  speed  with  the  help  of 

1  The  Psalms  of  Solomon  may  also  be  named    in    this 
connexion. 

2  Rom.  9*. 


43        DOCTRINE  AND   PIETY  IN   THE  CHURCH 

phantasy  into  the  far  distance  ;  not  only  the  dis- 
tant future,  but  also  the  beginnings  of  time  ; 
since  the  belief  in  a  divine  Creator,  which  expresses 
itself  in  glowing  colours,  by  means  sometimes  of 
grotesque  and  fantastic  images,  is  characteristic 
of  late  Judaism.^  The  reality  of  the  cleft  be- 
tween God  and  man  is  shown  by  the  different 
attempts  which  were  made  to  bridge  it  over.  In 
the  first  place  the  angels  must  be  mentioned  ; 
they  came  between  God  and  man,  not  side  by  side 
with  God.  Monotheism  remains  unimpaired  ;^ 
but  God  is  himself  so  remote,  so  unapproachable, 
that  he  has  intercourse  with  the  world  through 
other  beings.  In  this  way  the  angels  gain  an  in- 
dependent importance.  The  very  ancient  belief 
in  angels,  which  the  prophets  had  forced  into  the 
background,  revived  more  and  more  during  the 
post-exilic  period,  and  stands  in  its  fullest  vigour 
and  elaboration  at  the  time  of  Jesus. 

Some  of  their  names  are  known,  such  as  Michael, 
Gabriel,  Uriel,  Raphael.  They  are  arranged  in 
classes,  such  as  the  four,  six,  or  seven  archangels 

1  Especially  of  the  Ethiopic  Enoch,  the  Slavonic  Enoch,  and 
Philo  under  the  influence  of  non- Jewish  ideas. 

2  This  received  expression  in  names  like  the  Living,  the 
Eternal,  the  Lord  of  spirits. 


DOCTRINE   AND   PIETY   IN   THE   CHURCH        43 

(to  which  the  four  here  named  belong),  the  cher- 
ubim and  seraphim,  and  those  dominions,  prin- 
cipalities and  powers  which  we  meet  in  the  New 
Testament.^  Their  occupations  are  known  ;  and 
here  simple  old  popular  conceptions  come  again 
to  hfe.  Originally  the  stars  were  regarded  as 
angels,  and  this  is  the  meaning  of  the  phrase  '  the 
host  of  heaven.'  This  conception  endured,  or 
was  only  slightly  modified,  in  the  sense  that  the 
angels  are  in  charge  of  the  stars  ;  they  are  the 
heavenly  watchers.  And  Hke  heaven,  the  earth 
too  has  its  angels,  yes,  every  part  of  it,  wind  and 
waves,  thunder  and  lightning,  beasts  and  plants. 
In  this  doctrine  the  oldest  popular  belief,  according 
to  which  everything  is  filled  with  mysterious  life, 
every  tree  and  every  fountain,  celebrates  its 
resurrection.  And  just  as  individual  men  have 
their  guardian  angels,^  so  in  a  special  degree  have 
the  nations.  Persia  and  Greece  have  their  angels 
as  well  as  the  Jewish  people.  It  is  natural  that 
beUef  should  cUng  with  peculiar  fondness  to  the 
angel  of  the  Jews.  His  name  is  Michael.  He  is 
the  celestial  secretary,  who  represents  the  nation, 
fights  for  the  Jews,  stands  with  them  in  the  last 

lE.g.,  Rom.  838;  Eph.  121 ;  Col.  lie.  2  Matt.  iSW 


44         DOCTRINE   AND   PIETY   IN   THE   CHURCH 

judgment.  Finally,  the  nature  of  the  angels  is 
also  known.  They  are  celestial,  spiritual  beings, 
created  by  God,  similar  to  man,  but  not  subject  to 
human  needs.  Besides  the  good  angels  there  are 
also  bad  ones,  about  which  we  shall  speak  later. 
The  most  important  point  is  that  the  religious 
longing  to  perceive  the  divine  power  in  daily  hfe 
is  satisfied  by  means  of  the  angels.  They  stand  be- 
tween man  and  God,  who  retires  into  the  distance. 
A  like  part  is  played  by  certain  strange,  hybrid 
forms,  about  which  it  is  hard  to  say  whether  they 
are  personal  beings  or  abstractions.  They  were 
especially  in  favour  in  Alexandrian  circles,  but 
were  also  well  known  in  the  Judaism  of  Palestine. 
The  Wisdom,  Word,  Glory  or  Shechina  and  Spirit 
of  God  are  intermediate  beings  of  this  kind.  As 
early  as  in  the  Proverbs  we  read  about  Wisdom, 
*  Jahweh  created  me  as  the  beginning  of  his  ways, 
as  the  first  of  his  works  of  old.  I  have  been 
installed  from  everlasting.  .  ,  .  Then  I  was  at  his 
side  as  a  master-workman,  day  by  day  I  was  pure 
delight,  sporting  busily  at  all  times  before  him, 
sporting  upon  his  earth,  and  had  my  dehght 
among  the  sons  of  men.'^     Is  this  only  a  poetic, 

1  Prov.  822.81. 


DOCTRINE  AND   PIETY  IN  THE  CHURCH        45 

artistic  fancy,  or  does  the  writer  intend  to  depict 
a  personal  being  ?  In  any  case  the  further 
development,  which  we  can  trace  in  Jesus  Sirach, 
the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  and  Philo,  speaks  defi- 
nitely in  favour  of  the  latter.  A  similar  signific- 
ance attached — in  Palestine,  however,  only  at  a 
later  period — to  the  Word  of  God,  especially  the 
creative  Word,  conceived  in  the  light  of  Genesis  i. 
An  iridescent  indefiniteness  was  still  characteristic 
of  these  figures.  In  a  number  of  cases  we  cannot 
decide  whether  they  are  to  be  taken  for  mere 
attributes  and  activities  of  Ck>d  or  for  independent 
beings.  But  there  is  an  unmistakable  tendency 
towards  independent  Hfe.  That  peculiar  ambiguity 
has  its  intrinsic  justification  in  the  fact  that  the  pur- 
pose of  these  beings  is  twofold,  on  the  one  hand  to 
establish  a  communication  with  God,  on  the  other 
hand  to  prevent  a  direct  connexion  between  God 
and  the  World.  Accordingly  they  appear  some- 
times as  aspects  of  the  divine  being,  sometimes  as 
independent.  From  time  to  time  in  Jewish 
literature  the  Law,  that  centre  of  the  doctrine  of 
piety  in  the  Church,  and  indeed  of  Jewish  hfe  in 
general,  is  treated  almost  in  the  same  way  as  an 
independent,  spiritual  entity.     It  is  the  embodied 


46        DOCTRINE  AND   PIETY  IN   THE   CHURCH 

Will  of  God,  his  embodied  Wisdom,  and  here  too 
it  so  falls  out  that  this  great  something,  which  is 
the  ruler  of  life,  has  a  substantiality  of  its  own. 
God  himself  retires  behind  it.  It  is  specially 
recorded  that  at  the  giving  of  the  Law,  alongside 
other  marvels,  angelic  powers  took  part.^  Super- 
natural glory  surrounds  the  form  of  Moses,  the 
lawgiver.  A  whole  legendary  cycle  has  been  spun 
about  this  greatest  of  men,  who  up  to  the  time  of 
Jesus  was  looked  on  also  as  a  prophet,  and,  as  in 
the  case  of  Elijah,  it  ends  with  an  ascension  into 
heaven. 2  Whether  we  turn  to  Jesus  Sirach,  Philo, 
or  Josephus,  all  are  at  one  in  the  glorification  of 
the  Law.  This  leads  us  immediately  to  the 
attitude  adopted  by  the  Jew  towards  God. 

God,  as  lord  and  king,  has  given  his  people  the 
Thora,  the  Law.  Accordingly  the  highest  task 
of  the  Jew  consists  in  submission  and  obedience 
to  this  Law.  And  since  for  the  oriental  mind  the 
king  is  a  despot,  and  his  subjects  are  his  servants, 
so  also  the  Jew  has  not  only  to  obey  the  Law 
where   he   understands   it,   but,   like   a   menial, 

1  Acts  735  ;   Heb.  22  ;   Gal.  3". 

2  The  significance  of  these  ascensions  (cf.  also  that  of  Enoch) 
should  be  considered  from  the  point  of  view  of  historical 
religion  in  connexion  with  the  ascension  of  Jesus. 


DOCTRINE  AND   PIETY  IN  THE  CHURCH        47 

blindly  and  at  all  points.  This  explains  his  tena- 
cious observance  of  the  ceremonial  prescriptions. 
Nobody  could  discover  for  what  reason  certain 
foods  and  drinks  must  be  forbidden,  why  a  dead 
person  makes  you  ceremonially  unclean,  and  a 
bath  makes  you  ceremonially  clean  again.  Even 
Jewish  scribes  have  openly  confessed  so  much. 
In  all  such  questions  there  was  but  one  answer ; 
it  is  the  will  of  the  heavenly  king,  whom  we  must 
obey.  The  genuinely  oriental  character  of  Jewish 
devotion  showed  itself  in  the  quite  especial  zeal 
with  which  these  ceremonial  regulations  were 
observed.  In  this  respect  the  Diaspora  does  not 
lag  behind  the  Judaism  of  Palestine.  It  was 
precisely  in  ceremonies,  primarily  in  circumcision, 
in  the  strict  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  in  the 
numerous  rules  of  diet  and  so  forth,  that  the 
peculiarity  of  the  Jew  was  to  be  found,  which 
severed  him  so  strikingly  from  the  Gentile  nations, 
and  forced  itself  on  their  notice  as  a  mark  of 
difference.  These  rules,  again,  were  pre-eminently 
the  object  of  the  labour  of  the  scribes.  It  was 
one  of  their  chief  tasks  to  preserve  faithfully  all 
special  injunctions,  to  build  up  general  rules,  to 
catch  and  bind  the  whole  multiform,  mobile  life 


48         DOCTRINE  AND   PIETY  IN  THE  CHURCH 

of  the  people  in  a  network  of  such  directions. 
This  it  is  which,  more  than  anything  else,  stamps 
upon  later  Judaism  the  character  of  narrowness, 
paltriness,  and  often  of  ridiculous  futility.  It 
had  not  always  been  so.  Even  in  the  proverbial 
wisdom  of  the  Jews  there  still  lived  a  consciousness 
that  the  Law  has  a  greater  boon  to  bestow,  that 
its  aim  is  to  point  the  way  to  true  morality. 
Certainly  the  ceremonial  law  had  never  been 
disregarded.  The  historical  situation  in  the  post- 
exilic  period  was  what  gave  it  its  great  importance  ; 
it  was  a  necessity,  to  ensure  the  existence  of  the 
community.  The  actual  narrowing,  the  one-sided 
emphasis  laid  upon  this  side,  was  the  result  of  the 
activity  of  the  scribes.  This  was  in  the  mind  of 
Jesus  when  he  said  about  them  and  about  the 
Pharisees,  '  They  bind  heavy  burdens  and  lay 
them  on  men's  shoulders,  but  they  themselves 
will  not  move  them  with  their  finger.' ^  Under 
this  yoke  sighed  the  weary  and  heavy-laden, 
whom  Jesus  called  to  himself.^  And  yet  they 
submit.  It  is  the  will  of  God,  which  must  be 
obeyed  :  what  more  can  be  said  ?  It  is  well 
known  with  what  tenacity  and  passionate  energy 
iMatt.  23*.  2  Matt.  11 28.30, 


DOCTRINE  AND   PIETY  IN  THE  CHURCH        49 

the  Jews  pressed  on  to  this  goal,  even  to  the  laying 
down  of  their  lives ;  how  in  time  of  war  they  let 
themselves  be  massacred  rather  than  resist  on 
the  Sabbath ;  with  what  unbending  antagonism 
they  opposed  the  attempts  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes 
to  introduce  Greek  customs  by  force  ;  and  how  in 
times  of  peace,  especially  under  the  Roman 
emperors,  they  struggled  again  and  again  to 
obtain  such  privileges  as  would  allow  them  to 
Hve  according  to  the  Law. 

It  was  of  especial  and,  beyond  question,  of 
fateful  importance  that  the  Mosaic  Law  was  at 
the  same  time,  in  Palestine,  the  civil  law.^  All 
relations  and  conditions  of  public  and  private 
life  were  regulated  in  accordance  with  the  Mosaic 
Law  and  the  exposition  of  the  Scribes.  These 
formed  the  basis  of  decisions  in  the  local  courts, 
such  as  the  Sanhedrin,  the  supreme  court  of 
justice  in  Jerusalem.  The  execution  of  capital 
punishment  alone  was  reserved  by  the  Romans.^ 
Even  the  most  impossible  laws  to  be  kept  in 

1  In  the  Diaspora  matters  were  essentially  different.  As  a 
rule,  so  far  as  they  had  no  privileges,  the  Jews  were  obliged 
to  conform  to  the  law  of  the  land. 

2  Still,  a  Gentile  who  forced  his  way  into  the  inner  court  of 
the  Temple  was  liable  to  the  death  penalty  without  conditions. 

£ 


50         DOCTRINE   AND   PIETY   IN   THE   CHURCH 

Operation,  such  as  the  remission  of  debts  every 
seventh  year,  which  would  have  destroyed  all 
credit,  remained  in  force,  though  they  were 
deprived  of  their  real  meaning  by  the  additions 
of  the  Scribes.  But  this  close  connexion  between 
religious  and  civil  law  reacted  fatally  upon  piety  ; 
piety  towards  God  was  looked  upon,  in  the  main, 
as  something  juristic.  In  Judaism  rehgion  and 
law  entered  into  a  close  alliance,  to  the  grievous 
hurt  of  rehgion.  The  peculiar  character  of  legal 
piety  had  already  brought  it  about  that  atten- 
tion was  directed  and  importance  attached,  more 
and  more,  to  the  single  individual.  In  the  pre- 
exihc  period  the  individual  could  take  shelter 
under  the  people,  since  God  had  made  his  cove- 
nant immediately  with  the  people  as  a  whole, 
but  as  the  power  of  the  Law  grew  individualism 
made  its  way  also.  For  every  man  the  question 
was  whether  he  himself  fulfilled  the  Law  or  not. 
The  unity  of  the  people  is  cleft  in  two  ;  on  one 
side  of  the  gulf  stand  the  pious,  on  the  other 
the  godless — the  great  mass  of  the  indifferent  and 
lukewarm  stand  over  against  the  elite  of  the 
serious.  Indeed,  it  does  not  help  the  individual 
to  belong  to  the  group  of  the  pious ;    every  one 


DOCTRINE  AND   PIETY  IN  THE  CHURCH        5I 

must  be  answerable  for  his  own  deeds.  But  this 
development  of  the  idea  of  piety,  which  in  itself 
is  really  progressive,  was  vitiated  by  the  circum- 
stance that  the  relation  of  the  single  soul  to  God 
was  regarded  almost  exclusively  from  a  legal 
standpoint.  God  was  looked  upon,  therefore, 
chiefly  as  a  judge.  It  is  true  that  the  individual 
Jew  in  the  time  of  Jesus  speaks  of  God  also  as 
his  father.  In  applying  the  name  of  father  to  God 
Jesus  did  nothing  new.  But,  apart  from  the  fact 
that  use  of  this  name  in  Jewish  literature  is  not 
very  frequent,^  the  glad,  confident,  childlike  feeling 
which  the  name  of  father  on  the  lips  of  Jesus  im- 
plied is  nowhere  to  be  found.  God  is  not  thought 
of  chiefly  as  father,  but  as  judge.  His  great 
attribute  is  justice,  understood  now  in  the  juristic 
sense.  At  one  time  justice,  or  righteousness,  was 
the  judgment  of  God  sounding  forth  salvation, 
attesting  his  faithfulness  towards  himself  and 
the  people  with  which  he  had  made  a  covenant. 
This  meaning  is  prominent  in  the  second  Isaiah 
and  in  the  Psalms.  Justice  and  grace  stood  in 
the  most  intimate  relation  with  one  another. 
Now  justice  means  the  activity  of  the  judge  in 
1  The  Wisdom  of  Solomon  forms  an  exception. 


52        DOCTRINE  AND  PIETY  IN  THE  CHURCH 

requiting  or  compensating  according  to  the  letter 
of  the  Law,  The  pious  receive  their  reward,  the 
impious  their  punishment.^  True,  mention  is 
still  often,  indeed  very  often,  made  of  the  grace 
and  mercy  which  the  Almighty  shows  towards 
his  feeble  creatures  ;  the  Wisdom  literature  seeks 
to  combine  grace  and  justice  by  the  thought  of 
the  education  of  the  individual ;  but,  taken  as 
a  whole,  grace  now  stands  as  a  second  thing, 
alongside  justice,  in  a  wavering,  uncertain  posture. 
The  consequence  for  the  pious  man  is  that  every- 
thing depends  on  his  ability  to  stand  uncon- 
demned  in  the  just  judgment  of  God,  and  if 
possible  to  gain  his  grace.  Righteousness  before 
God,  justification — these  are  the  concepts — in 
which  Paul,  that  pupil  of  the  Pharisees,  frames 
his  thought.  But  since  God's  will  is  only  to  be 
learned  from  his  Law,  it  is  now  easy  to  under- 
stand the  eager,  sedulous  solicitude  of  the  Jew 
to  observe  this  Law  with  scrupulous  strictness  ; 
and  not  only  the  Law  itself,  but  also  the  whole 
appendix  of  tradition  which  professed  to  be  derived 
from  it.  If  possible  he  would  do  more  than  the 
Law  commands.     By  supererogatory  good  deeds 

1  Of.  Rom.  2«. 


DOCTRINE   AND   PIETY   IN   THE   CHURCH        53 

it  is  possible  to  win  merit  in  the  eyes  of  God. 
These  views  have  been  taken  over  directly  by  the 
Catholic  Church.  Piety  is  cankered  through  and 
through  by  the  thought  of  reward.  In  the  future 
judgment  God  has  nothing  to  do  but  to  give  the 
Jew  his  due  according  to  the  letter  of  the  Law, 
according  to  the  preponderance  of  good  deeds 
or  bad,  or  any  merit  which  he  happens  to  have 
in  hand.  How  extraordinarily  deep-rooted  this 
thought  was  in  the  time  of  Jesus  is  best  seen  in 
the  fact  that  Jesus  himself,  whose  inner  feeling 
had  completely  escaped  from  such  a  scheme, 
often  startles  us  by  expressing  his  ideas  in  terms 
of  reward  and  punishment. 

These  ideas  as  a  whole  had  necessarily  a  twofold 
effect  on  the  mood  of  those  who  held  them  ;  it 
oscillated  between  fear  and  presumption.  The 
pious  man  has  before  his  eyes  the  coming  judgment 
day  of  God,  when  the  dead  shall  arise  and  receive 
their  sentence.  Has  he  trod  the  way  of  life  or 
of  death  ?^  Will  he  hold  his  own  amid  all  the 
need,  anxiety,  and  seduction  of  this  present  age  ? 
At  the  end  of  his  life  will  his  account  show  a 

1  For  the  doctrine  of  the  two  ways,  cf,  e.g.,  '  Testament 
of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs,'  Asher,  i  ;   Matt.  7^3  sq. 


54        DOCTRINE   AND   PIETY   IN   THE   CHURCH 

balance  on  the  credit  side,  a  surplus  of  good  deeds 
over  bad  ?  Will  he  find  grace  before  the  severe 
judge  ?  Trembling  and  misgiving  must  seize  the 
Jew,  the  best  Jews  most  of  all,  at  these  thoughts  ; 
such  misgiving  as  speaks  in  the  words  of  IV  Ezra  : 
'  All  that  are  bom  are  deformed  with  impieties, 
full  of  sins,  laden  with  guilt.  It  were  much 
better  for  us,  if  after  death  we  had  not  to  enter 
into  the  judgment. '^  Paul  as  a  Pharisee,  before 
his  conversion  to  Christianity,  must  have  tested 
all  these  feelings,  as  we  learn  from  the  Epistle 
to  the  Romans. 2  It  is  this  quivering  dread 
which  engendered  the  penitential  sense  that  is 
so  markedly  characteristic  of  later  Judaism,  It 
found  expression  in  penitential  ceremonies,  prayers 
and  psalms.  The  Jews  are  driven  to  penance  by 
the  consciousness  of  sin,  and  also,  it  must  be 
granted,  by  sorrow  under  the  sufferings  which 
were  still  to  some  extent  regarded,  according  to 
ancient  Israelite  belief,  as  a  divine  punishment. 
Penance  consists  above  all  things  in  contrition, 
repentance,    confession,    and    is    combined    with 

1 IV  Ezra  788  sq. 

2  The  celebrated  description  in  Rom.  7^-23  was  written  by 
the  apostle  in  retrospect  on  his  Jewish  past,  in  contrast  to 
his  present  life  as  a  Christian. 


DOCTRINE  AND   PIETY  IN  THE   CHURCH        55 

self-chastisement  (fasting,  mourning  '  in  sack- 
cloth and  ashes  ').  Penance  is  supposed  to  make 
atonement.^  At  the  time  of  Jesus'  ministry  this 
state  of  mind  must  have  been  widely  diffused. 
John  the  Baptist  had  sounded  the  call  to  repent- 
ance, with  extraordinary  success.  Jesus  had 
taken  it  up  and  made  it  the  basis  of  his  whole 
preaching ;  this  note  is  heard  throughout ;  but 
it  is  momentously  transformed,  and  recalls  the 
demands  of  the  prophets. ^  Jesus  turned  his  eyes 
from  the  externals  of  penance,  and  by  repentance 
meant  a  change  of  spirit.  But  he  found  the 
conception,  as  well  as  the  feehng,  in  the  Judaism 
of  his  day.  The  terrors  of  the  year  70  a.d.  mightily 
strengthened  the  penitential  feeling,  so  that  it 
continues  to  play  a  leading  part  in  the  later  Jewish 
theology.  And  the  same  misgiving  which  drove 
men  to  penance  also  urged  the  pious  man  into 
busy  efforts  to  serve  God  by  works.  To  do  as 
much  as  possible,  to  exceed,  if  he  could,  the 
necessary  measure — who  knows,  it  might  not  be 
enough,  after  all !  This  is,  however,  only  one  side 
of   the   matter.     By   the   side   of   dread   stands 

1  Cf.  the  Testament  of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs,  Asher,  i. 
2  E.g.,  Ezekiel  iS'i ;    Hosea  10I2  ;    Jeremiah  4'. 


56         DOCTRINE   AND   PIETY  IN   THE   CHURCH 

presumption.  Outwardly,  indeed,  it  is  more 
prominent,  since  it  was  in  churchly  circles,  among 
the  pious,  that  it  chiefly  prevailed.  The  masses 
of  the  people,  who  sighed  under  the  burden  of  the 
demands  of  the  Law  and  the  tradition  of  the 
fathers,  men  whose  social  circumstances  left  them 
neither  time  nor  opportunity  for  the  sedulous 
observance  of  such  rules,  can  hardly  have  been 
inclined,  as  a  rule,  to  such  overweening  assurance. 
But  the  pious,  the  Pharisees,  who  really  put  them- 
selves to  the  greatest  trouble  and  could  never  do 
enough  to  satisfy  themselves,  often  looked  on 
their  own  performances  with  complacency,  and 
disparaged  others.  The  Gospels  afford  an  in- 
exhaustible supply  of  instances.  The  form  of 
the  Pharisee  who  prays,  '  God,  I  thank  thee  that 
I  am  not  as  the  rest  of  men  ...  I  fast  twice  in 
the  week  ;  I  give  tithes  of  all  that  I  possess,'^ 
is  copied,  in  its  vain  self-glorification  and  arrogance 
direct  from  real  life.  With  what  contempt  did 
the  words  about  Jesus  fall  from  such  lips,  '  the 
associate  of  pubhcans  and  sinners. '^  This  type 
of  the  pious  Pharisee  is  incomparably  depicted 
by  Paul,  when  he  says  that  he  relies  upon  the  Law, 
iLuke  1811  sq.  2  Matt.  ii". 


DOCTRINE   AND   PIETY   IN   THE   CHURCH        57 

glories  in  God  and  knows  his  will,  tests  the  differ- 
ences (between  good  and  bad),  being  instructed 
by  the  Law,  and  is  confident  that  he  is  a  guide  of 
the  bhnd,  a  hght  to  those  that  are  in  darkness,  an 
instructor  of  the  foolish,  a  teacher  of  infants.'- 
That  same  laborious  zeal  in  the  service  of  works 
which  is  bom  of  dread  of  the  judge  serves  on  the 
other  hand  as  a  foundation  for  self-confidence 
and  presumption.  The  superficiality  which  mea- 
sures itself  by  those  whom  it  regards  as  worse 
engenders  admiration  of  its  own  proficiency.  The 
consciousness  of  piety  poisons  piety  to  the  very 
marrow. 

While  we  have  realized  the  destructive  effect  of 
the  alliance  between  religion  and  law  upon  piety, 
we  must  not  forget  that  morality  was  also  griev- 
ously damaged.  The  one  fact  that  the  standard 
in  moral  matters  as  in  all  else  was  the  written  Law 
was,  in  itself,  a  source  of  grave  detriment.  In 
the  Law  the  preponderant  element  was  prohibition. 
Thus  with  regard  to  morality,  as  well  as  the  rest, 
what  was  above  all  things  laid  down  was  what  a 
man  ought  not  to  do.  There  is,  in  fact,  no  more 
significant  acknowledgment  of  this  state  of  things 

1  Rom.  2"-20. 


58        DOCTRINE  AND   PIETY  IN   THE  CHURCH 

than  the  formula  dehvered  to  us  repeatedly  by 
Jewish  lips,  '  What  thou  wilt  not  that  men  do 
unto  thee,  do  thou  not  unto  another.' ^  It  must 
be  granted  that  this  is  the  whole  width  of  heaven 
apart  from  that  word  of  Jesus  which  kindles  the 
energy  of  moral  action,  '  Whatsoever  ye  would 
that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  unto  them.'^ 
There  was  not,  then,  very  much  in  the  Law  which 
could  be  applied  in  the  manifold  relations  of  hfe. 
The  whole  work  of  developing  and  refining  the 
general  principles,  and  to  a  certain  extent  that  of 
giving  them  currency  for  use  in  daily  Ufe,  was 
relegated  to  the  individual,  and  so  stood  outside 
the  Law,  as  a  thing  left  to  freedom,  or  rather  to 
caprice.  The  Law  contained  so  many  specific 
demands  that  all  cases  not  mentioned  might  ap- 
pear to  be  abandoned  to  the  opinion  of  the 
individual.  This  explains  why  the  Jewish  pro- 
verbial wisdom  treats  the  whole  field  of  private 
moraUty  from  the  standpoint  of  the  sane,  inteUi- 
gent,  worldly  wisdom  of  a  cultured  man,  who 
enquires  about  practical  utihty.  Alongside  the 
ecclesiastical,  legal  ethic  there  grew  up,  then,  a 
utilitarian  morality  of  independent  importance, 
1  E.g.,  by  Hillel  and  Philo.  2  Matt.  712. 


DOCTRINE   AND   PIETY   IN   THE   CHURCH         59 

which  coheres  but  loosely  with  religion.  Finally,  a 
morality  so  closely  connected  with  the  Law  was 
only  considered  binding  between  Jews  and  Jews, 
just  as  the  Law  had  been  given  the  Jews  as  their 
peculiar  distinction.  A  few  ethical  directions  in 
the  Law  itself  refer  definitely  to  strangers  ;  apart 
from  these  everything  was  regarded  as  applying 
to  Jews  alone.  The  morality  is  narrow  and 
exclusive.  Even  in  the  writings  of  a  man  of  such 
high  culture  and  breadth  of  view  as  Jesus  Sirach 
we  read,  '  Arouse  thine  anger  (O  God)  and  shake 
forth  thy  wrath,  root  out  the  adversary  and  grind 
the  enemy.  .  .  .  Break  into  pieces  the  heads  of 
the  princes  of  thine  enemies,  that  say  :  there  is 
none  beside  us.'^  These  are  words  which  remind 
us  of  the  worst  imprecatory  Psalms.  There  were 
also,  of  course,  milder  and  more  broad-minded 
characters ;  we  need  but  think  of  Hillel  and 
Philo.  The  missionary  impulse,  the  propaganda, 
led  to  mitigations.  But  on  the  whole  we  find, 
even  in  the  moral  deaHngs  of  the  Jews,  that 
exclusion  of  all  but  themselves  which,  on  the 
other  hand,  drew  the  bitter  hatred  of  all  foreigners 
upon  their  race.  The  way  in  which  this  exclusive 
1 338.X2. 


60        DOCTRINE   AND   PIETY   IN   THE   CHURCH 

feeling  had  a  certain  effect  even  on  Jesus  is  clearly 
seen  in  the  fact  that  he  felt  himself  sent,  in  the 
first  place,  only  to  his  own  people,  and  forbade 
the  mission  to  the  Gentiles  and  Samaritans.^  In 
post- exilic  times  this  feehng  underwent  a  very 
distressing  development ;  it  was  appUed  in 
practice  even  to  members  of  the  Jewish  race. 
When  various  groups  stood  sharply  contrasted  and 
severed  from  one  another,  above  all  the  groups 
of  the  pious  and  the  ungodly,  the  members  of  one 
circle  thought  themselves  at  liberty  to  treat  those 
of  another  as  Gentiles,  or  even  worse.  Here  again 
a  well-meaning  man  hke  Jesus  Sirach  may  serve 
as  a  typical  example.  '  Give  to  the  pious  and 
take  not  the  part  of  the  sinner,  do  good  to  the 
meek  and  give  not  to  the  ungodly  ...  for  even 
the  Highest  hateth  the  sinner,  and  requiteth  the 
ungodly  with  chastisement.'  The  pious  man 
conceived  his  God  in  his  own  image,  and  he 
hated  the  ungodly,  even  among  his  own  com- 
patriots, as  he  hated  a  Gentile.  Morality  bears  the 
character  of  sectarian  arrogance.  Jesus  has  raised 
an  eternal  monument  to  this  type  of  feehng  in  the 
well-known  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan.^  In 
1  Matt.  1 524 ;  106  sq.,  if  spoken  by  Jesus.  2  Luke  lO^O-s?. 


DOCTRINE   AND   PIETY   IN   THE   CHURCH        6l 

the  course  of  the  first  Christian  century  the  bitter 
antagonism  between  Pharisees  and  'Am-ha-ares 
passed  all  bounds. 

These  were  the  chief  ways  in  which  morahty 
was  prejudiced  by  its  mere  connexion  with  the 
Law ;  there  were  others  which  resulted  from 
the  juristic  character  of  the  Law.  What  a  judge 
has  to  enforce  is  the  wording  of  the  statute.  In 
the  same  way  all  moral  demands  seemed  to  be 
fulfilled  when  the  letter  of  the  Law  was  obeyed. 
This  is  what  gives  Paul  occasion  to  call  Judaism 
the  covenant  of  the  letter,  and  to  declare  that  the 
letter  killeth.^  And  its  influence  upon  the  very 
breath  of  hfe  of  all  true  morahty,  such  as  springs 
forth  from  a  right  state  of  the  spirit,  is  indeed 
mortal.  A  flaming  denunciation  of  the  chaining 
together  of  the  letter  and  morahty  is  given  us  in 
the  first  great  section  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
in  which  Jesus  brings  out  again  and  again  just  the 
one  truth,  that  an  ethical  demand  is  very  far 
from  being  satisfied  by  observance  of  its  mere 
wording ;  rather,  as  the  whole  Sermon  shows, 
the  whole  weight  must  be  laid  on  the  spiritual 
state  in  which  the  single  act  takes  its  rise.    Closely 

1 II  Cor.  36. 


62         DOCTRINE  AND  PIETY  IN   THE  CHURCH 

connected  with  the  moral  literalism  of  the  Jews 
is  this  further  fact,  that  everything  which  over- 
steps the  letter  of  the  Law — praiseworthy  as  it 
is  from  the  point  of  view  of  ordinary  good  sense 
and  practical  wisdom — gains  the  character  of  some- 
thing supererogatory,  something  to  be  rewarded. 
Another  result  of  the  amalgamation  of  Law  and 
righteousness  was  not  less  dangerous.  Amid  the 
mass  of  particular  injunctions  the  moral  com- 
mands lost  their  unique  dignity,  lost  their  place 
of  eminence  above  the  ceremonial  regulations. 
They  were  so  little,  amid  so  much.  And  often 
enough,  through  human  indolence  and  the  base 
instincts  of  our  race,  that  little  was  allowed  to  be 
hid  behind  the  big  bulk  of  the  rest.  The  moral 
commands  were  much  more  difficult  to  obey, 
because  they  required  a  much  higher  degree  of 
self-conquest.  This  was  what  Jesus  had  in  mind 
when  he  said  to  the  Pharisees,  '  Ye  tithe  all  mint, 
diU,  and  cumin,  and  leave  undone  the  hard  part 
of  the  law,  righteousness,  mercy,  and  faithfulness.'^ 
We  know  perfectly  well  that  the  judgment  of  these 
words  did  not  fall  on  all  Pharisees.  There  were 
noble  figures  among  them,  who  had  not  lost  the 
1  Matt.  23«3. 


DOCTRINE  AND  PIETY   IN  THE   CHURCH        63 

consciousness  that  the  fulfilment  of  the  Law  is 
something  which  involves  the  whole  conduct  of 
life.  But  the  danger  which  arose  out  of  the 
juristic  character  of  the  Law  was  always  there, 
and  very  many  must  have  succumbed  to  it.  In 
the  closest  possible  connexion  with  this  stood  that 
hypocrisy  with  which  Jesus,  in  such  an  extremely 
bitter  style,  reproaches  the  scribes  and  Pharisees. 
In  the  great  discourse  against  the  Pharisees,  Matt. 
23,  from  verse  13  onwards,  there  are  seven  Woes, 
which  all  except  one^  begin  with  the  words, 
'  Woe  to  you,  scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites  ! ' 
Assuredly  there  cannot  have  been  many  who  were 
consciously  hypocritical,  even  though  there  were 
some  who  speculated  with  their  exemplary  piety 
on  the  admiration  of  the  people. ^  What  roused 
the  indignation  of  Jesus  to  such  a  pitch  was, 
fundamentally,  the  intrinsic  untruth  of  the  whole 
system.  Behind  the  fair  whitewash  on  the 
sepulchres  he  saw  dead  men's  bones. ^  Piety 
which  has  severed  itself  from  the  spring  of  a 
really  good  spirit  is,  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
hypocrisy. 

If  we  now  turn  to  those  exercises  of  worship  in 

1  Matt.  23I6.  2  Matt.  6i-«  ;  23B.  3  Matt.  238'. 


64        DOCTRINE   AND   PIETY   IN   THE   CHURCH 

which  this  piety  was  active,  we  find  the  Law  pene- 
trating into  this  field  too.  The  whole  Temple 
worship  and  everything  connected  with  it  is 
carried  out  with  such  punctihous  fidelity  because 
the  Law  commands  it.  That  is  the  dominating 
point  of  view.  At  first  sight  it  is  indeed  an 
astonishing  and  remarkable  thing  that  the 
Pharisees,  the  violent  opponents  of  the  priestly 
Sadducsean  nobiHty,  fulfil  all  their  ritual  duties 
with  a  fidelity  not  to  be  surpassed,  and  even 
when  possible  outstrip  the  commandment  of  the 
Law — and  in  all  this  are  only  strengthening 
the  back  and  filUng  the  purse  of  their  priestly 
opponents.  The  solution  of  this  apparent  contra- 
diction lies  in  the  fact  that  these  ritual  duties 
are  enjoined  in  the  Law,  and  therefore  must  be 
fulfilled. 

In  consequence  of  this  the  Temple  with  its 
priesthood  and  its  worship  enjoyed  the  highest 
respect  and  authority  until  its  destruction  in 
70  A.D.  The  glory  which  had  surrounded  the 
sanctuary  of  Solomon  in  ancient  days  was  not 
forgotten,  and  still  had  its  effect.  And  the  new 
sanctuary  of  Herod  stood  there  in  its  splendour. 
*  See,  what  stones,  what  buildings ! '  exclaimed 


DOCTRINE   AND   PIETY   IN   THE   CHURCH         65 

the  disciples,  in  astonishment,  to  Jesus  ;i  and 
so  may  many  a  pilgrim  have  cried,  with  admira- 
tion and  awe,  when  he  came  with  the  throng  of 
his  fellows  to  Jerusalem  for  one  of  the  great  feasts. 
For  those  who  dwelt  in  and  around  Jerusalem  the 
Temple  had  a  quite  special  importance.  Every 
day  crowds  came  in  to  the  sacrifices,  of  which, 
in  accordance  with  the  penitential  feeling  of  the 
time,  the  sin-offerings  were  valued  most  highly. 
The  great  Day  of  Atonement,  with  its  expiation 
for  the  whole  people  and  the  whole  land,  was  the 
chief  festival.  The  laity  were  blessed  by  the 
priests,  and  delighted  in  the  splendid  ceremonial. 
The  stay  in  Jerusalem — as  we  should  now  express 
it — was  very  interesting.  There  was  always  some- 
thing to  see — teachers  with  their  pupils,  disputa- 
tions, private  sacrifices,  the  arrival  of  strangers. 
And  even  the  Jew  who  remained  far  off  was  filled 
with  satisfaction  and  thankfulness  that  for  him  too, 
morning  and  evening,  the  burnt-sacrifices  ascended 
to  heaven.  Against  this,  on  the  other  hand,  very 
considerable  dues  had  to  be  met — the  Temple 
tax,  the  gifts  for  sacrifices,  which  fell  wholly  or 
in  part  to  ithe  priests,  the  firstlings  and  first-fruits, 

F 


66        DOCTRINE  AND  PIETY  IN   THE  CHURCH 

the  tithe,  pa5mient  of  which  was  treated  above 
all  as  a  serious  duty,  personal  presents,  and  so 
forth.  And  all  this  for  the  sake  of  the  Law,  as 
Jesus  Sirach  clearly  says,  '  Appear  not  before 
the  face  of  the  Lord  with  empty  hands,  for  all 
these  [sacrifices]  are  needful,  since  he  has  com- 
manded them.'^  The  violent  denunciation  of 
sacrifices  by  the  prophets  had  not  indeed  been 
forgotten.  The  same  Sirach,  who  in  32^,  begins 
with  the  words,  '  He  that  observes  the  Law  offers 
many  sacrifices,'  says  four  verses  later,  '  The 
good  pleasure  of  the  Lord  is  gained  by  abstaining 
from  sin,  and  his  appeasement  by  abstaining  from 
unrighteousness.'  Still,  for  the  letter's  sake,  the 
Sadducaean  priesthood  was  not  merely  endured 
but  highly  honoured.  In  spite,  however,  of  all 
this  outward  devotion  rehgion  had  already  severed 
itself,  unconsciously,  from  the  Temple  cultus. 
Jesus  had  no  occasion  to  attack  it.  Among  the 
Essenes  the  separation  was  open  and  avowed. 
And  thus  the  disappearance  of  the  Temple  was 
endured  without  any  grave  crisis  ensuing. 

The  institution  which  really  corresponded   to 
the  new  individual  piety  was  one  which  had  arisen 

1  326  sq. 


DOCTRINE   AND   PIETY   IN   THE   CHURCH         67 

at  the  same  time,  one  which  was  not  commanded 
in  the  Law,  the  spiritual  worship  of  the  sjmagogue. 
But  even  in  this  second  and  most  important  out- 
ward manifestation  of  piety  the  Law  was  a  de- 
cisive factor.  We  recognize  this  as  soon  as  we 
realize  what  went  on  in  the  synagogue  service. 

Its  external  guidance  lay  in  the  hands  of  a 
president,  the  so-called  archisynagogus  ('  ruler  of 
the  synagogue,'  Luke  13-^*),  who  was  most  prob- 
ably chosen  from  the  elders  of  the  civil  com- 
munity. The  service  began  with  a  confession, 
the  so-called  Sh'ma'  ('hear!'),  a  compilation  of 
passages  from  the  Law.  (There  is  a  high  degree 
of  certainty  that  it  existed  in  the  time  of  Jesus.) 
Then  followed  a  prayer,  spoken  standing,  with 
face  turned  to  Jerusalem.  One  member,  called 
on  by  the  president,  spoke  for  all ;  the  rest 
responded  with  an  occasional  Amen.  The  chief 
element,  which  came  next,  consisted  in  two 
lessons  from  the  Hebrew  text,  accompanied  by  a 
Syrian  translation.  First  a  passage  from  the  Law 
was  read,  the  Parasha,  '  section.'  In  this  way 
the  whole  Law  was  gradually  read  aloud.  Then 
came  a  passage  from  the  prophets,  the  Haphtara, 
*  conclusion '   (i.e.,  of  the  reading  of  scripture). 


68         DOCTRINE   AND   PIETY   IN   THE   CHURCH 

The  lessons  could  be  read,  and  the  sermon  which 
followed  could  be  preached,  by  any  of  the  mem- 
bers who  were  capable  and  willing.  The  service 
closed  with  a  blessing,  which  was  spoken  if  possible 
by  a  priest  or  Levite.  Alms,  too,  in  money  or 
kind,  were  collected  in  the  synagogue  by  special 
officials. 

In  this  kind  of  public  worship  three  points  are 
especially  prominent.  We  notice  first  its  singu- 
larly democratic  character.  The  powers  of  the 
officials,  the  president,  the  two  or  three  alms- 
collectors,  and  the  servant  of  the  synagogue,  were 
concerned  only  with  external  matters ;  the 
conduct  of  the  service  lay  intrinsically  in  the 
hands  of  the  congregation.  Anyone  might  speak, 
avow  his  faith,  pray,  read,  preach.  Jesus  himself, 
for  instance,  spoke  in  the  synagogue.  It  was  of 
course  only  natural  that  the  high  repute  and 
technical  knowledge  of  the  scribes  should  gradually 
win  for  them,  here  as  elsewhere,  a  predominant 
influence.  In  the  second  place,  then,  we  remark 
the  didactic  character  of  the  whole  institution.  In 
the  centre  of  its  procedure  stands  the  scripture 
lesson,  more  especially  the  reading  of  the  Law. 
Even  the  sermon  was  as  a  rule  a  practical  com- 


DOCTRINE   AND   PIETY   IN   THE   CHURCH        69 

ment  on  the  law.  The  members  of  the  congrega- 
tion assemble  to  be  instructed  in  the  Law.  Our 
Gospels  speak  of  '  the  teaching  in  the  synagogue.' 
On  the  other  hand  the  ceremonial  elements  are 
by  no  means  prominent.  What  calls,  however,  for 
the  highest  praise  is  the  entire  absence  of  magical 
or  sacramental  features ;  the  whole  service  lives 
and  moves  in  a  purely  spiritual  sphere.  Its  great 
resemblance  to  our  Christian  services,  for  which 
it  has  served  as  a  direct  model,  is  obvious  to  all. 
Among  the  people  the  synagogue  services  were 
highly  esteemed  ;  they  were  really  popular.  The 
sentence  of  exclusion  from  the  synagogue,  which 
was  probably  spoken  by  the  elders  of  the  congrega- 
tion, was  regarded  as  the  severest  of  punishments.^ 
In  connexion  with  the  synagogue  worship  cer- 
tain pious  exercises  were  especially  cultivated  in 
everyday  life — the  study  of  the  Law,  prayer, 
almsgiving.  It  was  the  sign  of  a  pious  Israelite 
to  be  busied  with  the  Law  as  much  as  possible, 
even  outside  the  synagogue.  As  Hillel  says,  '  an 
ignorant  man  cannot  be  truly  pious,'  and  '  the 
more  knowledge  of  the  Law,  the  more  life.''^     It 

1  Of.  Luke  622  ;  John  922,  12*2,  i62. 
2  Recorded  in  the  Pirke  Aboth. 


70        DOCTRINE   AND   PIETY   IN   THE    CHURCH 

was  an  ideal  of  life  to  repeat  and  ponder  the  Law 
in  time  of  work  and  of  recreation.  This  conception 
finds  its  classical  expression  in  the  late  introduc- 
tion to  our  collection  of  Psalms  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment :  '  Well  for  the  man  who  wanders  not  in 
the  counsel  of  the  wicked,  nor  walks  the  way  of 
sinners,  nor  sits  in  the  seat  of  those  that  mock, 
but  delights  in  the  Law  of  Yahweh,  and  meditates 
upon  his  Law  day  and  night. '^  Closely  associated 
with  the  study  of  the  Law  was  the  practice  of 
prayer,  for  which  precise  directions  existed  in 
the  time  of  Jesus.  The  Sh^ma',  which  we  have 
already  referred  to,  was  uttered  morning  and 
evening.  Another  prayer  which  certainly  existed, 
at  least  in  the  main,  was  the  Sh^moneh-esreh, 
'  the  prayer  of  eighteen  supplications,'  a  really 
beautiful  and  pregnant  petition — only  somewhat 
too  long — which  was  to  be  repeated,  according  to 
a  later  rule,  morning,  noon,  and  evening.  Let 
us  cite  some  of  its  loftiest  thoughts  as  examples. 
'  Praised  be  thou,  O  Lord  our  God,  and  God  of 
our  fathers  .  .  .  Thou  art  almighty  for  ever,  O 
Lord,  that  makest  the  dead  to  Uve  .  .  .  Thou 
art  holy,  and  thy  name  is  holy^  ,  .  ,  Praised  be 

1  Psalm  i^-  sq.         2  A  reminiscence  of  this  in  our  Paternoster, 


DOCTRINE  AND   PIETY  IN  THE  CHURCH        7I 

thou,  O  Lord,  the  giver  of  knowledge  .  .  .  Praised 
be  thou,  O  Lord,  that  hast  pleasure  in  a  contrite 
heart.  Forgive  us,  our  father,  for  we  have  sinned.^ 
.  .  .  Praised  be  thou,  O  Lord,  the  redeemer  of 
Israel.  Hallow  us,  O  Lord,  and  we  shall  be  holy  ; 
help  us,  and  we  shall  be  holpen  ;  for  thou  art  our 
praise.'  Prayers  at  table,  thanksgivings  before 
and  after  meat,  were  also  in  general  use  ;  Jesus 
himself  used  them.  Then  came  private  prayers. 
Beyond  all  doubt  this  tenderest  blossom  of  the 
religious  Hfe  was  much  injured  by  the  coercion  of 
rules,  especially  if  we  should  suppose  the  much 
more  detailed  prescriptions  of  the  Mishna  to  have 
been  in  force  in  Jesus'  hfetime.  But  the  necessity 
of  repeating  one  and  the  same  lengthy  prayer 
several  times  a  day,  and  the  same  prayer  every 
day,  must  of  itself  lead  in  the  end  to  a  mere 
mechanical  gabble.  This  fate  has  befallen  the 
Paternoster,  down  to  our  own  time,  and  no 
formulated  church  prayers  can  escape  it.  The 
prayerful  ostentation  of  the  Pharisees,  who  spoke 
prayers  aloud  as  they  walked  the  streets — their 
long  petitions,  with  no  heart  in  them — are  known 
to  us  through  the  Gospels. ^ 

1  Reference  to  previous  foot-note. 
2  Matt.  66,  158;   Mark  12*0. 


72        DOCTRINE   AND   PIETY   IN   THE   CHURCH 

And  just  as  the  alms  were  collected  in  the 
synagogue,  in  order  to  be  distributed  afterwards, 
so  also  the  pious  Jew  used  to  give  freely  in 
other  ways  to  the  poor.  Compassion  and  alms- 
giving were  interchangeable  terms.  The  litera- 
ture is  full  of  exhortations  to  beneficence,  in 
which  we  can  clearly  see  the  special  connexion 
between  pious  works  and  membership  of  the 
church.  The  best  known  passage  comes  from 
the  Book  of  Tobit  :  '  Laudable  is  prayer  with 
fasting  and  mercy  and  righteousness  .  .  .  For 
beneficence  saves  from  death  and  cleanses  from 
every  sin.'^  The  value  of  alms  can  hardly  be 
rated  higher.  It  belongs  to  the  range  of  things 
in  which  merit,  and  thereby  propitiation,  can  be 
soonest  attained.  In  the  passage  just  quoted 
fasting  is  named  in  the  closest  connexion  with 
prayer  and  alms.  Although  not  commanded  in 
the  Law,  except  on  the  great  Day  of  Atonement, 
yet  as  a  consequence  of  the  post-exilic  penitential 
feeling  the  practice  of  fasting  had  become  extra- 
ordinarily popular  as  a  token  of  great  piety. 
General  fasts  were  held  especially  in  times  of 
severe  need,  for  instance  in  times  of  drought,  and 

1  128  sq. 


DOCTRINE   AND   PIETY   IN   THE   CHURCH        73 

always  on  Monday  and  Thursday.  Of  course  no 
limit  was  set  to  private  fasting.  Among  the 
Pharisees  there  were  exemplary  saints  to  be  found 
who  fasted  every  week  on  those  two  days,  and  were 
it  is  true,  extremely  conscious  of  the  fact.^  He 
who  would  be  pious  must  fast,  and  was  very 
willing  that  his  fasting  should  not  be  concealed. ^ 
The  disciples  of  John  the  Baptist  used  to  fast, 
and  Jesus  and  his  disciples  fell  sadly  under  sus- 
picion, because  they  did  not  fast.^  This  practice 
has  simply  been  taken  over  by  the  Christian 
Church  from  the  Jewish.  Apart  from  ceremony 
and  public  worship  the  most  notable  manifesta- 
tions of  Church  piety  were  almsgiving,  prayer, 
and  fasting.  It  is  no  accident  that  these  three 
points  form  the  subject  of  the  second  section  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.* 

iLukei8i2.       2Matt.  6i«.       3  Mark  a".       ^Matt.  6I-". 


Chapter  III 

POPULAR  PIETY 

It  must  be  emphasized  at  the  outset  that  no 
contrast  is  intended  between  the  piety  of  the 
church  and  that  of  the  people.  What  we  have 
been  reviewing  was  certainly,  in  the  first  place, 
the  doctrine  and  piety  of  those  circles  which 
regarded  themselves  as  especially  pious,  and 
exercised  a  determining  influence  in  the  Jewish 
Church,  the  circles  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees. 
But  the  masses  stood  under  that  influence,  and 
were  attached  to  the  church.  They  accepted  as 
truth,  which  ought  to  be  believed,  that  which  was 
expounded  to  them  in  school  and  synagogue,  and 
they  conformed  to  the  piety  of  the  Pharisees. 
Still  it  was  inevitable,  then  as  now,  that  in  the 
faith  of  the  people  there  was  much  which  bore  a 
very  different  aspect  from  that  of  its  original 
meaning.      In   the    first   place,  it   is   important 


POPULAR   PIETY  75 

to  note  that  the  belief  which  the  people  held  was 
only  a  fraction  of  that  of  the  church.  Much  of 
what  the  leading  church  circles  believe  is  unknown 
and  unintelligible  to  the  people  ;  much  lies  outside 
the  possible  range  of  popular  belief  or  conception. 
For  instance,  the  doctrine  of  those  strange  hybrids 
such  as  Wisdom,  the  Word,  the  Shechina,  which 
we  have  examined,  can  hardly  have  been  known 
among  the  people,  and  so  far  as  it  was  known 
it  can  scarcely  have  been  understood.  On  the 
other  hand  it  was  impossible  for  the  people  to 
observe  the  multitude  of  particular  commands 
and  traditions  which  the  scribes  put  forward. 
They  had  neither  time  nor  money  enough  for  that. 
In  fact,  exemplary  piety  was  only  possible  for 
those  who  were  in  tolerably  good  circumstances. 
There  was  always  going  on,  therefore,  in  the 
popular  religion  a  process  of  selection ;  and, 
alongside  that,  a  coarsening  process,  which  is 
difficult  to  lay  hold  of  in  detail,  but  was  un- 
doubtedly at  work.  We  may  be  sure,  for  instance, 
that  the  ideas  concerning  angels  took,  in  the  minds 
of  the  people,  a  much  more  realistic  and  concrete 
form — that  downright  belief  in  demons  and  devils 
about    which    we    shall    speak    later.     Such    a 


76  POPULAR   PIETY 

coarsening  process  may  easily  result  in  an  actual 
transformation  of  belief.  It  is  exceedingly  likely 
that  in  the  popular  faith  the  angels  received  a 
prominence  which  endangered  monotheism  itself. 
This  affords  the  best  explanation  of  that  angel- 
worship  which  is  assailed  in  the  New  Testament, 
for  instance  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Colossians,  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrev/s,  and  the  Revelation  of  John. 
Then  again,  popular  piety  always  contains  residu- 
ary, belated  elements,  which  the  more  instructed 
have  already  surmounted.  Views  which  were  once 
general  are  held  to  with  remarkable  tenacity 
by  the  people.  In  the  religion  of  the  church  a 
belief  prevails  in  retribution  in  a  world  to  come  ; 
but  among  the  people  the  ancient  belief  in  a 
retribution  in  this  world  is  ineradicable — the  belief 
which  meets  us  in  the  Old  Testament  Psalms,  the 
Psalms  of  Solomon,  and  in  the  New  Testament, 
that  the  pious  are  prosperous  on  the  earth,  and 
that  suffering  is  punishment.^  The  religious 
development  had  left  that  belief  far  behind.  In 
the  new  church  piety  individualism,  the  decisive 
importance  of  the  single  personahty,  had  asserted 
itself  with  power  ;  but  among  the  people  the 
1  Cf.  e.g.,  in  the  New  Testament :  Luke  13I-' ;  John  9I-3. 


POPULAR  PIETY  ']>J 

national  idea  was  inveterately  rooted,  the  feeling 
that  the  Jewish  people,  as  such,  was  favoured  by- 
God.  Among  the  masses  it  was  still  a  distinctive 
and  glorious  title  that  they  were  '  the  IsraeHtes, 
to  whom  belong  the  sonship  and  the  glory  and  the 
covenants  and  the  giving  of  the  Law  and  the 
service  and  the  promises,  to  whom  the  fathers 
belong.'^  God  belongs  to  his  own  people,  and 
that  people  to  God.  He  cannot  abandon  it ;  he 
must  needs  save  it.  Nothing  illustrates  this 
national  feehng  more  strikingly  than  the  fact 
that  in  70  a.d.,  just  before  the  end,  many  of  the 
Jews  who  were  pent  up  in  the  besieged  city 
believed  firmly  and  fixedly,  up  to  their  last  breath, 
that  God  would  intervene,  in  view  of  the  final 
catastrophe,  and  miraculously  rescue  them.  This 
national  element  is  the  decisive  trait  in  the  piety 
of  the  people.  At  this  point  we  must  expressly 
point  out  that  it  offers  no  contrast  to  the  feeHng 
of  the  leading  church  circles.  The  Pharisees 
cherished  the  national  hopes  of  Israel.  They  too 
beUeved  in  the  Messiah.  Every  day,  in  the 
Sh^moneh-esreh,  the  prayer  was  offered,  '  May  the 
scion  of  David  thy  servant  soon  spring  forth,  and 

1  Rom.  9*  sq. 


78  POPULAR  PIETY 

lift  up  his  horn  through  thy  help  ;  for  we  wait 
upon  thy  help  every  day.  Praised  be  thou,  O 
Lord,  that  makest  to  spring  forth  a  horn  of 
salvation.'  The  Psalms  of  Solomon  themselves, 
which  most  strongly  reflect  the  popular  expecta- 
tion of  a  Messiah,  are  conceived  from  the  stand- 
point of  Pharisaic  piety.  But  the  difference  of 
shade  was,  in  this  case,  very  significant.  Among 
the  church  circles,  among  the  Pharisees,  the 
national  expectancy  was  less  prominent.  \Vhat 
filled,  for  them,  the  whole  range  of  present  thought 
and  action  was  the  Law,  and  it  afforded  them  a 
satisfaction  which  prevailed  even  under  circum- 
stances of  great  depression.  But  among  the 
people  all  this  was  reversed.  Even  if  we  leave 
the  Zealots,  the  national  fanatics,  quite  on  one 
side,  the  ordinary  people,  who  felt  the  oppression 
of  the  political  situation  and  the  evil  times  most 
severely,  lived  in  the  national  thought,  and  clung 
to  it  with  all  the  warmth  of  their  feeling,  with  all 
the  force  of  their  imagination,  with  all  the  wist- 
fulness  of  hope.  At  the  time  when  Jesus  ap- 
peared the  popular  piety  of  the  Jews  was  entirely 
concerned  with  the  future.  Out  of  the  miserable 
present,  in  which  the  people  dragged  on  a  dreary 


POPULAR  PIETY  79 

existence  under  the  iron  rule  of  Rome,  the  most 
glowing  hopes  went  forth  towards  what  was  soon 
to  come.  The  great  mass  of  the  people  lived 
outside  the  present,  in  a  future  which  was  awaited 
with  feverish  suspense.  '  The  kingdom  of  God 
and  Messiah  '  was  the  watch-word  of  their  religion. 
When  Jesus  appeared  John  the  Baptist  stood  on 
the  bank  of  Jordan  and  preached  to  great  throngs 
that  the  kingdom  of  God  and  the  Messiah  were  at 
liand.^  It  was  a  message  to  the  people. ^  There 
are  three  points  in  which  the  national  elements 
in  this  popular  feeling  can  be  discerned — in  the 
way  in  which  the  kingdom  of  God  and  the 
kingdom  of  the  Jews  merge  into  one  another,  in 
their  conception  of  the  Messiah,  in  the  fate  of 
other  nations. 

It  had  long  been  an  established  idea  among  the 
Jews  that  Israel  had  but  one  king,  Yahweh, 
beside  whom  no  other  had  place.  The  Maccabean 
rising  formed  an  exception,  which,  after  the  fall 
of  the  Hasmonean  family,  was  quickly  corrected. 
The  Idumean  dynasty  of  the  Herods  had  always 
been  hateful  to  the  Jews,  as  a  sacrilegious  presump- 
tion. The  kingship  or  the  kingdom  of  Yahweh 
1  Matt.  32  and  "  sq.  2  Matt.  35.7. 


8o  POPULAR   PIETY 

had  been  spoken  of  in  the  Old  Testament  in 
numerous  places,  in  the  Prophets,  the  Psalms 
and  elsewhere,  either  in  the  sense  that  it  was 
present  and  always  existed,^  or  in  the  other  sense 
that  it  was  to  come  in  the  future, ^  Both  ideas 
continued  to  appear  in  the  later  Jewish  literature  ; 
but  in  the  time  of  Jesus,  and  indeed  much  earlier, 
perhaps  ever  since  Daniel,  the  coming  of  the 
kingdom  had  gained  preponderance,  and  swayed 
the  souls  of  the  people  in  one  direction.  When 
John  the  Baptist  and  Jesus  proclaimed  the 
message,  '  The  kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand,'  when 
Jesus  taught  his  disciples  to  pray,  '  Thy  kingdom 
come,'  the  deepest  yearning  of  the  people  found 
expression.  Every  Jew  understood  thereby  that 
the  hidden  rule  of  God  should  be  plainly  mani- 
fested, that  his  kingdom  should  appear  visibly 
upon  the  earth  :  but  their  faith  had  a  reverse 
side — in  the  minds  of  the  Jews  this  kingdom  was 
their  kingdom.  This  fact  nowhere  appears  more 
luminously  than  in  Daniel  7^',  where  the  last  time, 
after  the  judgment,  is  spoken  of  :  '  Then  shall  the 
kingdom  and  the  dominion  and  the  greatness  of 
the  kingdoms  under  the  whole  heaven  be  given  to 

lEx.  15I8;    Ps,  145I3.  213.2483;    Micah  47, 


POPULAR  PIETY  8 1 

the  people  of  the  saints  of  the  Most  High  ;  his 
kingdom  shall  be  an  everlasting  kingdom,  and  aU 
dominions  shall  serve  and  be  subject  to  him.' 
Here  the  place  of  the  eternal  kingdom  of  God  is 
taken  by  the  eternal  kingdom  of  the  people  of 
the  saints,  that  is  to  say,  of  the  Jews.  True,  it 
is  God  who  brings  the  coming  kingdom,  but  it 
is  in  fact  the  Jewish  kingdom.  The  national 
definiteness  of  Jewish  expectation  appears  here 
very  clearly.  Accordingly  the  kingdom  of  the 
last  time  will  be  situated  in  Palestine  ;  its  centre 
will  be  Jerusalem  and  the  Temple,  both  splendidly 
glorified.  From  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  the 
scattered  Jews  shall  be  summoned  home  by  the 
great  trumpets  of  God^  (thus  Jesus  Sirach,  Tobit, 
the  Psalms  of  Solomon,  etc.)  and  then  a  golden 
age  shall  begin  in  the  new  kingdom  ;  fertility 
like  that  of  Paradise,  abundant  progeny,  child- 
birth without  throes,  no  sorrow  or  sighing,  but 
rest  and  peace.  The  deeper  rehgious  and  moral 
conceptions  of  the  vision  of  God,  the  consum- 
mation of  sonship,  purity  and  holiness  are  not 
absent,  but  are  decidedly  less  prominent  than  these 
nationahst  ideas.  There  are  not  many  descrip- 
1  With  a  reminiscence  of  Is.  27I'. 

G 


82  POPULAR  PIETY 

tions  of  the  future  age  which  stand  upon  such  a 
height  as  the  concluding  words  of  the  Psalms  of 
Solomon,  i8^-^  :  '  Blessed  is  he  that  shall  live  in 
these  days  and  may  behold  the  salvation  of  the 
Lord,  which  he  is  preparing  for  the  generation  to 
come  under  the  rod  of  chastisement  of  the  anointed 
of  the  Lord  in  the  fear  of  his  God,  in  spiritual 
wisdom,  righteousness  and  strength,  that  he  may 
lead  everyone  in  works  of  righteousness  through 
the  fear  of  God,  and  present  them  all  together  before 
the  face  of  the  Lord,  a  good  generation  full  of  the 
fear  of  God  in  the  days  of  grace.'  These  beautiful 
words  bring  us  to  the  consideration  of  him  that 
was  to  play  a  special  part  in  the  coming  kingdom 
of  God — the  Messiah. 

Ever  since  the  time  of  the  prophet  Isaiah  the 
Jewish  people  had  been  hoping  for  the  Messiah, 
that  is  '  the  anointed '  of  God,  in  a  special  sense 
of  the  word — the  king  of  the  future.  Isaiah  g^-^ 
and  11^-^,  passages  of  the  greatest  significance  for 
all  succeeding  time,  are  the  brilliant  stars  whose 
gleam  prefigures  that  expectation.  There  are 
some  investigators  by  whom  these  passages  are 
not  assigned  to  Isaiah.  In  any  case  we  must  go 
back  as  far  as  the  later  exilic  time  ;   but  hitherto 


POPULAR   PIETY  83 

no  really  decisive  proof  has  been  brought  forward. 
The  birth  of  such  a  hope  in  the  time  of  Isaiah  is 
quite  intelligible.  During  the  decline  and  sub- 
sequent fall  of  the  dynasty  of  David  the  Jewish 
people  could  not  forget  the  pristine  glory  of  that 
house.  They  clung  to  the  promise  which  had 
been  given  to  David,  '  Thine  house  and  thy 
kingdom  shall  be  made  sure  for  ever  before  thee  ; 
thy  throne  shall  be  established  for  ever.'^  And 
so,  about  the  ruins  of  the  fallen  tabernacle  of 
David,  the  hope  crept  and  climbed  that  once 
again  a  king  of  David's  house  should  come, 
victorious,  mighty,  as  in  the  old  time,  but  also  a 
ruler  after  God's  heart,  under  whom  peace  reigns  in 
the  land  and  righteousness  prevails.  The  figure 
of  the  Messiah  is  therefore  connected  in  the  closest 
way  with  the  national  expectation  of  the  people, 
with  the  overthrow  of  their  enemies,  with  his  own 
powerful  lordship.  The  dominant  influence  of 
these  conceptions  continued  to  operate  in  the  piety 
of  the  people. 

Still,  the  idea  of  the  Messiah  was  not  without 
its  history.  Just  in  the  last  centuries  before  Jesus 
it  fell  much  into  the  background,  as  the  conviction 

1 II  Sam.  7I6. 


84  POPULAR  PIETY 

gained  sway  that  God  himself,  by  a  miraculous 
interposition  from  heaven,  would  effect  a  radical 
revolution  in  all  the  relations  of  the  world  ;  in 
one  department  of  Jewish  literature  indeed — as 
we  shall  see  in  the  next  chapter — the  Messianic 
idea  itself  underwent  a  fundamental  transforma- 
tion. There  were  times,  such  as  the  glorious 
period  of  the  Maccabean  dynasty,  when  people 
believed  they  were  already  living  in  the  Messianic 
era,  that  the  Messiah  was  already  before  them 
in  the  person  of  the  reigning  prince  ;  times  in 
which  king  and  priest  were  one.  The  best  known 
witness  of  this  is  Psalm  iio.^  But  when  the 
Maccabees  fell  a  quick  revulsion  came  to  pass  in 
the  popular  feeling.  The  Maccabees  were  now 
the  blasphemers,  who  had  arrogantly  usurped  the 
kingly  digjnity  ;  the  hope  for  a  coming  Messianic 
king,  which  had  never  been  extinguished,  even  in 
times  for  which  we  have  no  testimony,  was  now 
again  fanned  to  a  bright  glow.  This  is  nowhere 
so  clearly  to  be  seen  as  in  the  Psalms  of  Solomon, 
already  often  mentioned  ;  their  high-strung  ex- 
pectation gives  us  our  most  important  witness 
concerning  the  popular  Messianic  conceptions  in 
1  Cf.  also  the  Testament  of  Levi,  i8. 


POPULAR   PIETY  85 

the  last  decade  before  Jesus.  That  a  strong 
Messianic  excitement  was  stirring  among  the 
people  at  the  time  of  Jesus'  appearance  is  certain. 
This  is  proved  by  such  a  figure  as  that  of  John 
the  Baptist,  the  state  of  mind  of  Jesus'  disciples, 
the  expectancy  of  the  crowds,  and  the  pretenders 
to  the  office  of  Messiah  from  among  the  Zealots, 
who  continued  to  appear,  down  to  Barkochba 
in  Trajan's  time. 

If  we  now  ask,  more  in  detail,  what  the  nature 
of  the  Messianic  conceptions  were  when  Jesus 
appeared,  we  must  emphasize  strongly  at  the  out- 
set that  in  the  whole  of  Judaism,  down  to  Jesus' 
time,  no  trace  of  a  suffering  Messiah  is  to  be  found. 
If  Jesus  held  that  in  spite  of  his  sufferings,  in  spite 
even  of  his  shameful  end,  he  himself  it  was  whom 
God  should  send  as  Messiah,  that  was  an  act  of 
his  own,  personal,  valiant  faith.  It  was  not  until 
much  later  that  Judaism  began  to  speak  of  a 
suffering  Messiah,  and  it  then  contrived  to  remain 
faithful  to  its  original  view  by  distinguishing 
between  two  Messiahs — a  dying  Messiah,  the  son 
of  Joseph,  and  a  victorious  lord,  the  son  of  David. 
In  Jesus'  time  the  expected  Messiah  was  to  be  a 
triumphant  ruler  over  Palestine  and  the  Jewish 


86  POPULAR  PIETY 

people,  whose  sway  should  inaugurate  the  new  age. 
In  accordance  with  Malachi  3^  Elijah  was  looked 
for  as  his  forerunner. ^  Moses  and  Enoch  had 
also  been  regarded  as  precursors.  Since  Isaiah  11^ 
it  had  been  held  as  an  unshakable  certainty  that 
the  Messiah  must  be  a  descendant  of  David. ^ 
As  regards  his  relation  to  God  it  was  by  no  means 
the  case  that  God  was  in  any  way  eclipsed  by  the 
Messiah.  On  the  contrary  he  is  the  gift  of  God's 
grace,  he  '  whom  God  has  chosen,'  he  appears  at 
the  time  '  which  thou  hast  chosen,  O  God,  that  he 
may  rule  over  thy  servant  Israel.'^  It  is  God's 
faithfulness,  compassion,  grace  that  permits  the 
son  of  David  to  arise  ;  God's  glory  is  reflected  in 
him.*  The  seventeenth  of  the  Psalms  of  Solomon 
begins  and  closes  with  the  words,  '  The  Lord  (God) 
is  our  King  for  ever  and  ever.'  But  in  truth  there 
does  exist  a  close,  personal  relation  between  God 
and  Messiah,  though  always  a  relation  in  which 
the  Messiah  is  subordinate.  He  is  directed  by 
God  ;  he  lives  in  the  fear  of  God  ;  God  is  his  king, 
his  hope  ;    God  gives  him  his  spirit,  his  wisdom, 

1  Jesus  Sirach  48*  and  "  ;  Mark  6",  828,  9II  sq.,  1535  sq. 

2  E.g.  Ps.  of  Solomon  1721 ;    Mark  I235,   lo*?  ;    Rom.   i^  ; 
II  Tim.  28,  and  many  other  passages. 

8  Ps.  of  Solomon  1721,  *2,  4  Ps.  of  Solomon  17^  sq.  21,  3i 


POPULAR  PIETY  87 

his  strength.  1  All  this  is  expressed  compactly 
in  the  phrase — not,  however,  a  very  frequent 
phrase — '  Son  of  God,'  which  refers  to  Psalm  2'', 
understood  in  a  Messianic  sense. ^  But  what  is 
intended  by  this  title  is  certainly  only  an  inner, 
personal,  spiritual  relation  between  God  and 
Messiah,  not  a  physical  relation,  transcending  the 
spiritual.  His  nearness  to  God  comes  out  in  the 
character  of  the  Messiah.  He  is  energetic,  up- 
right, wise,  filled  with  the  spirit ;  he  will  not 
stumble,  he  is  even  sinless.*  Whenever  the  moral 
qualities  of  the  Messiah  are  depicted  the  influence 
of  Isaiah  11^-®  is  quite  especially  prominent.  Yet 
again,  it  is  his  abundant  endowment  with  the 
spirit  which  explains  that  expectation,  revealed 
in  the  New  Testament,  of  special  miracles  to  be 
wrought  by  the  Messiah.*  But  however  clearly 
we  must  recognize  that  Jewish  piety  ascribes  to 
the  Messiah  a  high  level,  indeed  a  unique  level 
of  religious  and  moral  worth,  which  is  described 
sometimes  in  glorious  words,  yet  in  the  mind  of 

1  Ps.  of  Solomon  1732,  34,  37.40, 

2  In  the  New  Testament,  e.g.,  Mark  3II,  5'. 

3  Ps.  of  Solomon  1736  ;  Testament  of  Levi  18.  For  the 
application  of  this  Messianic  dogma  to  Jesus  in  the  New 
Testament,  cf.  II  Cor.  521 ;  Heb,  415,  726  ;  i  Pet.  222  ;  I 
John  36.  *Matt.  ii2-«,  12". 


88  POPULAR   PIETY 

the  Jew,  when  he  thinks  of  the  future  son  of 
David,  what  stands  first  is  something  else — the 
overthrow  of  enemies,  the  glorious  kingly  rule 
in  Palestine.  This  brings  us  to  the  last  point, 
the  fate  of  other  nations  in  the  Messianic  age. 

That  same  seventeenth  Psalm  of  Solomon,  upon 
which  I  have  already  drawn  considerably  for 
illustration,  begins  its  picture  of  the  glorious 
future  (cf.  2i_25)  in  quite  different  tones.  How 
characteristic  these  verses  are  !  Yes,  it  was  of 
this  that  every  pious  Jew  of  that  time  thought 
first,  when  he  spoke  of  the  Messiah — the  shattering 
of  enemies  with  a  staff  of  iron,  destruction  of  the 
Roman  empire,  which  had  now  laid  its  heavy  hand 
on  the  Holy  Land  as  once,  in  Daniel's  time,  the 
Grecian  empire  had  done.  Jewish  piety  is  filled 
with  that  thirst  for  revenge  to  which  this  is 
a  religious  desire — '  In  thy  lovingkindness  cut  off 
mine  enemies,  and  destroy  all  that  oppress  me,  for 
I  am  thy  servant,' ^  which  could  apostrophise 
Babylon,  '  Happy  shall  he  be  that  seizes  and 
dashes  thy  little  ones  against  the  rock.'**  Psalm 
2*  and  Isaiah  ii*  were  especially  favourite  pass- 
ages. The  Messiah,  Yahweh,  and  his  angel  play 
1  Ps.  14312.  2  Ps.  1379. 


POPULAR  PIETY  89 

here  the  same  part.  The  Jews  themselves  too  are 
sometimes  thought  of  as  sharing  in  the  work  of 
retribution.  1  It  is  in  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat 
by  Jerusalem  that  the  great  judgment  of  destruc- 
tion shall  go  on. 2  The  frightful  description  in 
Joel  3^^,  '  Yahweh  roars  from  Zion,  and  utters  his 
voice  from  Jerusalem,  that  the  heavens  and  the 
earth  shake,'  had  given  wide  scope  to  passionate 
dreams  of  revenge.  This  can  be  clearly  traced  in 
Revelation  14^0,  where,  in  a  passage  originally 
Jewish,  a  slaughter  so  hideous  is  looked  for  that 
the  blood  reaches  to  the  bridles  of  the  horses,  a 
thousand  six  hundred  '  furlongs  wide.^  Those 
Gentiles  who  do  not  fall  victims  to  destruction — 
for  here  the  representations  vary  :  sometimes  all 
perish,  sometimes  only  the  oppressors — serve  only 
as  vassals  to  exhibit  the  triumph  of  the  Jewish 
people  in  its  full  glory.  They  do  not  form  an 
object  of  independent  interest ;  they  are  not  to  be 
won  by  teaching  and  conversion  ;  but  they  may 
bring  their  treasures,  and  foreign  kings  may  count 
it  an  honour  to  serve  Jerusalem,  as  Isaiah  60^-^'' 
had  described  so  clearly  and  decisively  for  all 

1  Thus  Enoch  9019.  3  Cf.  Enoch  ioqI-s. 

3  Sometimes  an  actual  conflict  is  thought  of  ;  more  often  a 
divine  judgment,  carried  out,  perhaps,  by  fire. 


90  POPULAR   PIETY 

the  time  to  come.^  At  most  the  Gentile  nations 
shall  receive  the  leaves  of  the  tree  of  life,  while 
its  fruits  are  reserved  for  Israel. ^  But  Palestine 
and  Jerusalem  will  then  be  '  pure,'  free  from 
all  gentile  defilement.  Thus  Joel  had  already 
prophesied, '  Jerusalem  shall  be  holy,  and  strangers 
shall  no  more  pass  through  it.'^  And  it  resounds 
again  in  the  Psalms  of  Solomon  that  the  Messiah 
shall  distribute  the  holy  people  over  the  land 
according  to  their  tribes,  '  and  neither  aUens  nor 
strangers  shall  dwell  among  them  any  more.'* 
That  is  the  ideal.  In  this  point  the  exclusive, 
strictly  national  character  of  this  piety  is  especially 
palpable.  And  yet  there  were,  connected  with 
these  national  hopes,  feelings  of  another  kind, 
strongly  individualistic,  such  as  appear  in  the 
expectation  of  the  resurrection  and  retribution 
in  a  future  world.  But  they  can  better  be  dealt 
with  in  the  next  chapter,  in  connexion  with  that 
peculiar  manifestation  which  we  are  accustomed 
to  call  the  Jewish  Apocalyptic.  For  we  then 
learn  to  conceive  resurrection  and  future  letribu- 
tion  not  as  isolated,  extraordinary  forms  of  belief, 
but  as  necessary  constituents  of  a  new  and  com- 
plete theory  of  the  world. 

1  Rev.  2 1 2*.  2  Rev.  222.  3  Joel  317,  *  1728, 


Chapter  IV 

THE  JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC 

The  phenomena  which  we  have  now  to  discuss 
cannot  well  be  brought  under  the  head  of  popular 
piety,  for  we  are  here  dealing  only  in  part  with  a 
common  possession  of  the  great  masses.  Those 
national  aspirations  which  we  have  just  considered 
were  really  a  common  possession.  We  learn  from 
the  New  Testament  that  even  the  disciples  of  Jesus 
clung  to  them  to  the  last.  This  is  shown  by  the 
petitions  of  the  sons  of  Zebedee/  and  by  the  utter 
lack  of  understanding  which  the  disciples  showed 
in  view  of  Jesus'  path  of  suffering.  It  speaks  in 
Luke  24^^  and  Acts  i^.  But  this  new  range  of 
thought  does  not  stand  in  any  opposition  either  to 
the  popular  or  the  Pharisaic  religion.  There  were 
apocalypses  which  clearly  betray  the  Pharisaic 
standpoint,  even  though  most  of  them  did  not 
iMark  lo^?. 


92  THE   JEWISH   APOCALYPTIC 

originate  in  the  circles  of  the  scribes,  but  in  those 
of  the  laity  ;  and  on  the  other  hand  the  views  of 
these  remarkable  writings  were  represented  far 
and  wide  among  the  people,  to  some  extent  indeed 
had  reached  the  stage  of  general  conviction,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  doctrines  of  resurrection  and 
retribution.  The  newer,  individualistic  piety  of 
the  Church  stamped  itself  strongly  upon  these 
works,  while  nationalistic  traits  are  not  lacking. 
It  is  also  incorrect  to  regard  the  apocalyptic 
literature  as  a  sort  of  heretical  backwater  of  the 
legal  Judaism,  though  Jewish  scholars  are  apt  to 
take  this  view.  In  the  writings  themselves  there 
is  no  trace  of  anything  of  the  kind.  The  volume 
of  this  literature,  and  the  fact  that  the  Christians 
simply  took  over  the  Jewish  apocalypses,  and 
wrote  similar  works  themselves,  tells  strongly 
against  such  a  notion.  It  was  not  until  after 
70  A.D.,  when  the  school  of  the  Talmud,  the 
strictly  legal,  rabbinical  school  had  gained  the 
day,  that  the  apocalyptic  literature  was  rejected. 
But  at  this  point  it  is  necessary  to  go  farther  back, 
and  make  clear  the  real  nature  of  this  phenomenon. 
We  are  not  dealing  with  a  few  isolated  writings, 
but  with  a  widely  ramified  literature,  which,  as 


THE   JEWISH   APOCALYPTIC  93 

the  name  Apocalypse,  '  Revelation,'  implies,  pro- 
fesses to  reveal  something.  This  something  was 
nothing  less  than  the  divine  secrets,  which  would 
otherwise  have  been  hidden  from  mankind.  The 
first  apocalyptic  book  which  we  know  is  actually 
in  the  Old  Testament  canon  ;  this  is  the  book  of 
Daniel,  written  in  the  year  165  B.C.  Its  most 
important  successors  down  to  the  time  of  Jesus* 
ministry  are  the  book  of  Enoch,  preserved  in  the 
Ethiopic  language  ;  the  Jewish  writing  which  is 
the  basis  of  the  Testament  of  the  Twelve  Patri- 
archs ;  the  third  book  of  the  Sibylline  Oracles  ; 
the  Ascension  of  Moses ;  perhaps  too  the  '  Slavonic' 
Enoch.  But  the  fourth  book  of  Ezra  and  the 
Syriac  Apocalypse  of  Baruch,  which  belong  to 
the  end  of  the  first  century  and  are  among  the 
most  remarkable  of  the  Jewish  apocalypses,  must 
also  be  considered.^  Among  the  Christian  Apoca- 
lypses, which  made  great  use  of  Jewish  material, 
and  are  written  in  just  the  same  style  and  tone, 
we  must  mention,  besides  the  Revelation  of  John 

1  See  Appendix.  All  the  works  mentioned  except  the 
Slavonic  Enoch  are  to  be  found  in  a  German  translation  in 
Kantsch,  '  die  Pseudepigraphen  des  Alten  Testaments,'  1900. 
[The  greatest  authority  on  this  subject  in  EngUsh  is  Dr.  R.  H. 
Charles,  whose  article  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Biblica  is  an 
admirable  introduction  to  the  Apocalyptic  Literature.] 


94  THE   JEWISH   APOCALYPTIC 

which  stands  in  the  New  Testament,  the  Revelation 
of  Peter,  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas,  the  Ascension 
of  Isaiah,  the  fifth  and  sixth  books  of  Ezra,  and 
the  Christian  SibyUines.^ 

If  we  ask,  first  of  all,  what  are  the  marks  of  this 
literature  in  respect  of  form,  we  at  once  encounter 
a  remarkable  interweaving  of  revelation  and 
concealment.  The  secret  of  God,  which  has  been 
hidden  from  eternity,  is  indeed  to  be  revealed, 
but  not  for  every  one  ;  it  is  again  concealed, 
though  not  so  utterly  as  to  make  a  revelation 
impossible.  A  light,  transparent  veil  is  thrown 
over  the  matter,  to  screen  it  from  rude,  intrusive 
eyes,  while  the  understanding  soul,  guided  by  the 
spirit,  is  able  to  see  through.  Thus  in  Daniel  the 
name  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  in  the  Revelation 
of  John  the  name  of  Nero,  is  never  uttered  ;  the 
one  speaks  of  the  '  little  horn,'  the  other  of  the 
'  beast,'  but  the  reader  of  that  age  with  any 
insight  knew  quite  well  what  was  meant.  The 
word,  '  He  that  hath  ears,  let  him  hear,'^  is  here 
especially  applicable.     '  Teach  it  to  the  wise  among 

1  All  published  in  German  in  Hennecke's '  Neutestamentliche 
Apokryphen,'  1904.  [For  the  English  literature  in  this  field 
see  Dr.  Charles's  article  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Biblica.] 

2  Revelation  of  John  1 3^. 


THE   JEWISH   APOCALYPTIC  95 

thy  people,  of  whom  thou  art  assured  that  their 
hearts  can  grasp  and  hold  thy  secrets  '  ;  so  we 
read  in  IV  Ezra  12^^.^  '  Thou  revealest  not  thy 
secrets  to  the  great  crowd,'  writes  the  Syriac 
Baruch  48^.  In  these  passages  the  consciousness 
of  the  apocalyptic  writers  speaks  very  plainly,  and 
we  clearly  recognize  that  their  piety  cannot  simply 
be  equated,  without  further  ado,  with  that  of  the 
great  multitude.  In  order  to  understand  this 
peculiar  combination  of  revelation  and  conceal- 
ment we  must  keep  in  mind  that  the  Apocalypses 
were  produced  in  times  of  bitter  strife.  Plain 
speaking,  at  such  times,  means  setting  hfe  at 
stake.  Daniel  predicts,  as  a  seer,  the  downfall  of 
the  hated  reign  of  the  Seleucidae,  while  Antiochus 
IV  (Epiphanes)  holds  Palestine  in  his  power.  The 
authors  of  IV  Ezra,  the  Syriac  Baruch,  and  the 
Revelation  of  John  beheld  their  deadly  foe  in  the 
Roman  Empire,  but  were  nevertheless  its  subjects. 
But  besides  this  pohtical  motive  there  was  a 
religious  motive — the  feeling  that  the  divine 
secrets  can  never  be  made  perfectly  intelligible 
to  terrestrial  man.  '  For  as  the  land  is  given 
over  to  the  forest  and  the  sea  to  its  waves,  even 

iCf.  Eph.   ii4. 


96  THE   JEWISH   APOCALYPTIC 

SO  can  the  dwellers  upon  earth  know  nothing  but 
the  earthly,  and  only  the  celestials  can  know 
what  is  in  the  heights  of  heaven.' ^  Man  cannot 
fully  understand  the  ways  of  the  Highest :  '  But 
thou,  a  mortal  man,  that  Uvest  in  the  transitory 
aeon,^  how  canst  thou  conceive  the  eternal  ?  '^ 
This  religious  thought  colours  the  presentation  of 
the  whole  revelation,  which,  in  its  very  secretive- 
ness,  evinces  its  supernatural  character,  its 
celestial  origin.  Often,  of  course,  half  the  mystifi- 
cation is  mere  literary  mannerism. 

Another  formal  mark  of  this  literature  is  closely 
connected  with  the  preceding  :  the  whole  of  it  is 
pseudonymous.  The  concealment  of  the  writer 
is  quite  in  keeping  with  that  of  the  revelation. 
Here  too,  however,  the  veil  is  generally  thin 
enough.  Every  reader  with  any  skill  in  history 
can  easily  see  that  the  writers  do  not  belong  to 
the  age  to  which  they  profess  to  belong.  This 
again  was  due  to  the  stress  of  the  times.  On  the 
other  hand  it  beseemed  the  divine  revelation  to 
choose  the  noblest  organs  for  its  utterance.  The 
authors  do  not  venture  to  come  forward  in  their 

^  IV  Ezra  421.  2  Aeon, — age  in  the  world's  destiny. 

3  IV  Ezra  4". 


THE  JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC  97 

own  insignificant  person ;  they  call  up  the  grand 
forms  of  a  hoary  antiquity,  such  as  Enoch  and 
Moses,  or  of  epoch-making  periods,  such  as  Ezra 
and  Baruch,  men  of  whom  we  may  read  in  the 
Old  Testament,  as  we  do  of  Moses,  that  God 
spake  with  them  face  to  face,  or,  as  of  Enoch  and 
Elijah,  that  God  withdrew  them  to  himself.  It 
seemed  natural  and  credible  enough  that  such 
men  as  these  should  receive  a  mysterious,  divine 
revelation.  This  is  another  case  in  which  it  would 
be  quite  out  of  place  and  unhistorical  to  regard 
pseudonymity  simply  as  a  literary  fraud.  The 
authors  were  certainly  convinced  that  the  great 
beings  under  whose  names  they  put  forward  their 
writings  had  long  been  in  possession  of  all  these 
revelations.  At  the  same  time  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  the  mere  instinct  of  literary  imitation  also 
played  a  part,  especially  in  later  times. 

Finally  we  must  take  note  that  the  whole 
apocalyptic  is,  as  regards  its  form,  soothsa5ang, 
chiefly  in  the  way  of  visions.  We  certainly  do  find, 
side  by  side  with  this,  certain  speculations,  which 
strike  us  to-day  as  highly  bizarre,  concerning  the 
secrets  of  the  universe — speculations  chiefly  of 
an  astronomical  kind — but  beyond  question  the 

H 


98  THE   JEWISH   APOCALYPTIC 

chief  interest  of  the  writers  hes  in  the  future. 
The  divine  mysteries  have  yet  to  be  revealed. 
All  those  frequent  retrospects  over  the  historical 
past,  which  begin  if  possible  with  the  beginning 
of  the  world,  are  never  the  result  of  a  mere  his- 
torian's interest  in  anything  which  used  to  exist ; 
they  serve  only  as  pointers  into  the  still  unknown 
future,  which  shall  lead  to  the  unveiling  of  the 
mysteries  of  God.  And  since  celestial  things  can 
never  be  quite  adequately  represented,  it  is 
necessary  to  employ  as  illustration  figures  which, 
nevertheless,  have  always  the  effect  of  partly 
concealing  what  they  would  exhibit. 

If  we  turn  from  form  to  matter,  the  first  im- 
pression we  gain  from  the  whole  apocalyptic  is 
that  of  the  strange,  grotesque,  fantastic.  The 
reader,  for  instance,  who  comes  in  the  Revelation 
of  John  upon  the  woman  arrayed  with  the  sun, 
and  the  moon  under  her  feet,  and  upon  her  head 
a  crown  of  twelve  stars,  or  the  great  red  dragon, 
that  cast  the  third  part  of  the  stars  to  earth  with 
his  tail,  or  the  beast  with  ten  horns  and  seven 
heads,  or  finds  in  the  Slavonic  and  the  Ethiopic 
Enoch  the  most  extraordinary  descriptions  of  a 
series  of  heavens  and  their  contents,  stands  in 


THE  JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC  99 

face  of  something  utterly  unintelligible,  a  book 
with  seven  seals.  It  is  only  when  we  pay  heed 
to  the  numerous  allusions  to  contemporary  his- 
tory, and  especially  when  we  consider  this  whole 
material  in  its  relation  to  the  wider  history  of 
religion,  that  light  breaks  on  our  darkness.  The 
apocalyptic  consists  partly  of  very  ancient,  sacred, 
mythological  elements  from  foreign  religions, 
which  have  migrated  from  people  to  people,  and 
are  often  misunderstood  or  reinterpreted  by  the 
author  himself,  but,  in  our  eyes,  only  really  begin 
to  hve  when  they  have  been  brought  back  into 
their  original  setting — so  to  say,  brought  home 
again.  This  is  the  starting-point,  and  a  very 
important  field  of  labour,  in  the  modem  re- 
searches of  Protestant  theologians  in  the  history 
of  religion. 

If  we  regard  the  piety  of  the  apocalyptists,  we 
easily  perceive  an  intense,  but  at  the  same  time 
overstrained  and  therefore  morbid  religiosity. 
The  source  from  which  the  apocalyptic  draws  its 
religious  power  is  an  unconquerable  conviction 
that  it  stands  at  the  end  of  this  world.  It  flows 
through  these  works  hke  a  broad  river :  the  end 
is  near,  very  near.     '  The  aeon  hastens  mightily 


100  THE   JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC 

towards  its  end.'^  The  past  stands  to  the  short 
remaining  time  as  a  rain-storm  to  a  single  drop, 
as  a  huge  fire  to  a  last  wisp  of  smoke.  '  The 
youth  of  the  world  is  past,  and  the  vigour  of 
creation  has  long  come  to  an  end,  and  the  coming 
of  the  time  is  all  but  here,  and  nearly  overpast.'^ 
It  is  these  apocalypses,  indeed,  which  most 
eminently  represent  the  new  belief  of  the  church, 
that  God  will  reveal  himself  in  the  future.  In  the 
numerous  passages  which  might  here  be  cited 
religious  power  is  really  found.  Face  to  face  with 
evil,  man  clings  to  God  and  his  heaven,  and 
yearns  ardently  for  his  coming.  What  a  deep 
influence  such  a  feehng  could  have  is  shown 
especially  by  IV  Ezra  and  the  Syriac  Baruch, 
where  the  terrors  of  the  divine  judgment  rise  up 
before  even  the  pious  man,  and  the  penetrating 
sense  of  his  own  sin  grows  up  beside  that  of  the 
general  sinfulness  of  his  race.  The  conviction 
that  the  end  of  the  world  is  imminent  fans  religious 
fervour  into  flame  ;  the  soul  alienates  itself  from 
the  world  and  turns  with  all  its  energy  to  God. 
This  is,  then,  beyond  question,  a  mighty  religious 
power,  which  reveals  its  force  most  strongly  in 
1 IV  Ezra  428.  2  Syr.  Baruch  8510, 


THE   JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC  lOI 

Jesus  and  in  primitive  Christianity.  If  Jesus  was 
saturated  with  the  sense  that  he  had  come  in  the 
last  hour  before  the  shutting  of  the  door,  if  he 
was  convinced  that  there  were  people  belonging 
to  his  own  generation  who  would  not  die,  but 
would  see  the  end  of  the  world, ^  if  as  a  result  all 
else  sank  to  nothing  in  his  eyes  compared  with 
the  saving  of  the  soul  out  of  the  firebrand  of  this 
world,  in  all  this  he  was,  beyond  doubt,  under  the 
influence  of  the  apocal5rptic.  And  yet,  in  the 
apocalyptists,  this  religious  tension  overstrains 
itself,  and  becomes  irreligious.  Man  is  able  to 
calculate  the  end  of  the  world.  This  point  is  of 
supreme  importance  to  our  understanding  of  the 
apocalyptic.  The  conviction  that  the  end  is  near 
leads  to  the  question,  how  long  will  it  be  till 
then  ?  The  underlying  thought  is  this  :  *  God 
has  weighed  the  aeon  in  the  balance,  he  has 
measured  the  hours  with  a  measure  and  counted 
the  times  by  number.  He  disturbs  them  not  and 
wakes  them  not  until  the  measure  ordained  be 
fulfilled . '  2  But  then  comes  the  inevitable  moment . 
*  The  Highest  looked  upon  his  times,  and  lo,  they 
were  at  an  end,  and  his  aeons,  lo,  they  were  full.'* 

1  Mark  9I.  2  IV  Ezra  4S6  sq.  »  IV  Ezra  1 1**. 


102  THE   JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC 

But  if  God  has  fixed  a  definite  measure  for  the 
times  of  the  world,  then  the  soul  illuminated  by 
God's  spirit,  initiated  into  his  secrets,  can  reckon 
them  up ;  and  so  this  arithmetic,  this  assumption 
of  exact  knowledge,  pervades  the  whole  apoca- 
lyptic. Daniel  takes  up  Jeremiah's  prophecy  of 
the  seventy  years  and  interprets  it  as  meaning 
seventy  weeks  of  years,  after  which  the  end  of 
the  world  is  to  come.  According  to  the  Ethiopic 
Enoch  the  duration  of  the  world  amounts  to  ten 
thousand  years,  according  to  the  Ascension  of 
Moses  twenty  thousand.  It  is  therefore  easy  to 
understand  that  in  the  apocalyptic  figures  play 
a  very  considerable  part.  The  most  important 
phenomena  are  brought  forward  in  the  guise  of 
numerical  values.  Numerical  riddles  are  pro- 
pounded.^ At  this  point  mystery  turns  to 
mystification.  Piety  takes  a  morbid  direction, 
and  becomes  at  bottom  irreligious  ;  it  lacks  the 
calm,  equable  trust  in  God,  which  can  await  his 
good  pleasure.  The  Lord  of  heaven  is  dictated 
to  ;  curiosity,  the  hankering  after  superterrestrial 
knowledge,  carries  things  with  a  high  hand.  It 
is  exceedingly  significant  that  in  this  matter  Jesus 

1  Cf .  Revelation  of  John  1 3", 


THE   JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC  IO3 

has  not  followed  the  apocal5T)tic.  His  intimate 
rehgious  communion  with  God  was  involuntarily 
offended  by  it.  Moreover  Jesus  himself  perceived 
and  expressed  his  opposition  to  it :  '  Concerning 
that  day  and  the  hour  none  knoweth,  not  even 
the  angels  of  heaven,  not  even  the  Son,  but  only 
the  Father. '1  The  apocalyptic  itch  for  calcula- 
tion is  always  felt  by  the  truly  religious  man  as 
a  usurpation  of  the  rights  of  God.^  We  must  also 
observe  that  calculation  is  not  only  to  be  found 
where  definite  figures  are  given ;  the  exact  ex- 
position of  a  series  of  premonitory  signs  in  strict 
succession  belongs  to  the  same  field  ;  it  is  indirect 
calculation. 

If  we  compare  the  apocalypses  with  the  older 
Jewish  views,  even  those  of  the  earlier  post-exiUc 
period,  the  most  important  difference  that  con- 
fronts us  is  the  duaUsm  of  the  apocalyptic  theory 
of  the  world.^  It  is  the  most  decisive  char- 
acteristic of  this  class  of  hterature,  a  new  trait, 
foreign  to  Judaism.  Two  ages  of  the  world 
confront   each   other   in   irreconcilable   contrast, 

iMatt.  2486.     Of.  Luke  1720. 

2  Cf.  e.g.,  Luther's  distaste  for  the  Apocalypse. 

3  Dualism  means  the  setting  up  in  opposition  to  each  other 
of  two,  and  only  two,  irreconcilable  principles. 


104  '^^^   JEWISH   APOCALYPTIC 

*  this  age '  and  '  the  age  to  come,'  the  present 
and  the  future  aeon.  The  present  world  is  bad, 
the  prey  of  Satan  and  the  demons,  given  over  to 
irremediable  destruction.  The  future  world  is 
utterly  different,  good,  divine,  eternal.  Here  the 
expectation  of  the  future  is  purely  supernatural. 
Everything  earthly  must  first  fall  to  final  ruin,  and 
then  comes  something  altogether  new.  It  cannot 
be  put  more  clearly  than  in  IV  Ezra  ^^"^  sqq. 
'  This  aeon  is  full  of  mourning  and  hardship. 
For  the  evil  concerning  which  thou  askest  me  is 
sown,  and  its  harvest  has  not  yet  appeared.  So 
long  then  as  that  which  is  sown  has  not  yet  been 
reaped  and  the  place  of  evil  seed  has  not  yet 
vanished,  the  field,  where  the  good  is  sown,  can- 
not appear.'  It  is  by  no  means  merely  a  question 
of  the  destruction  of  evil,  but  also  of  the  disappear- 
ance of  the  earth  as  the  place  of  evil  seed,  A  new, 
good  field  will  appear.  The  future  world  has  long 
existed  in  heaven,  created  by  God  before  the 
creation  of  the  world. ^  The  extraordinary  signific- 
ance of  these  new  views  does  not  consist  merely 
in  the  substitution  of  a  heavenly  hope  for  an 
earthly,  but  chiefly  in  the  possibility  which  they 
1  Cf.  Syr.  Baruch  518  ;   IV  Ezra  8^2. 


THE   JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC  IO5 

establish  of  breaking  down  utterly  that  national 
narrowness  in  rehgion  which  we  recognized  so 
clearly  in  the  preceding  chapter.  The  outlook 
becomes  world-wide.  What  is  concerned  is  no 
longer  merely  Palestine  and  its  destiny,  the  future 
of  the  Jewish  people.  Worlds  confront  each  other 
and  wrestle  together.  God  and  Devil,  angels  and 
demons  wage  battle.  Who  does  not  know  how 
Jesus,  in  line  with  this  view,  conceived  of  his 
whole  ministry  as  a  warfare  against  the  kingdom 
of  Satan  and  his  evil  spirits  ?^  Jesus'  general 
theory  of  the  world  is  derived  from  the  apocalyptic, 
and  is  but  a  temporary  husk  for  the  eternal 
religious  and  moral  truth  which  he  brought.  It 
was  in  the  domain  of  these  views  that  the  rehgious 
individuahsm  which,  as  we  have  seen,  arose  and 
spread  also  in  the  legalistic,  churchly  piety, 
attained  its  most  effective  power,  even  though  it 
never  reached  a  definite  formulation.  Still  this 
field  shows  very  real  preparatory  steps  towards 
the  gospel  of  Jesus,  as  we  shall  at  once  recognize 
if  we  now  deal  briefly  with  details.  In  this 
examination  we  can  attempt  to  establish  the  main 

^  Mark  322.27  ;  Matt.  1228.     All  Jesus'  healings  of  demoniacs 
should  be  considered  from  this  point  of  view. 


I06  THE   JEWISH   APOCALYPTIC 

features.  Precisely  in  the  apocalyptic  there  is 
such  a  wealth  of  heterogeneous  material  that  this 
limitation  is  absolutely  necessary. 

That  the  present  world  is  bad  is  a  fundamental 
conviction  in  this  literature.  The  world  stands 
under  the  influence,  partly  indeed  under  the 
lordship,  of  evil  spirits.  The  belief  in  dark  powers, 
demons,  and  the  like,  was  in  Jesus'  time  quite 
general. 

No  doubt  there  always  existed  in  the  Jewish 
religion,  as  in  all  popular  religions,  and  even  in 
the  prophetic  period,  a  belief  in  evil,  uncanny 
spectres,  and  goblins.  What  is  new  in  the 
apocalyptic  is  the  remarkable  prominence  of  this 
belief,  and  the  consolidation  of  all  these  beings 
to  a  kingdom  of  evil  under  a  monarchical  govern- 
ment. A  Satan  is  certainly  known  to  the  Old 
Testament  ;  but  he  is  an  angel  by  the  throne  of 
God,  whose  duty  it  is  to  discharge  the  functions 
of  accuser — an  office  which  he  uses,  it  must  be 
admitted,  with  malicious  arrieres  pensees.  This 
Satan,  who  also  bears  the  names  Mastema,  BeHar, 
Beelzebub,  has  become  in  the  apocalyptic  what 
naive  popular  belief  even  yet  understands  by  the 
word  '  devil ' — God's  antipodes,  the  ruler  in  the 


THE  JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC  IO7 

realm  of  evil.  Under  him  come  the  demons,  the 
offspring  of  those  sons  of  God  whose  offence  is 
recorded  in  Genesis  6^ ;  these,  as  fallen  angels, 
seduce  man  to  evil,  especially  to  idolatry,  in 
invisible  forms  stir  up  the  vilest  passions,  and 
engender  all  possible  diseases.^  They  dislike  to 
stay  in  their  proper  habitation,  the  desert,  but  in 
countless  numbers  they  surround  mankind,  and  lie 
in  wait  to  destroy  him.  Thus  did  later  Judaism 
behold  this  world,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
Jesus  simply  inherited  and  shared  these  views* 
Jesus  wages  warfare  against  Satan  and  his  kingdom. 
In  his  age  these  were  no  metaphors  for  the  power 
of  evil,  but  perfectly  real  and  very  terrible  entities. 
A  world  which  had  given  itself  up  to  these  dark 
powers  must  come  to  destruction.  But  the  nearer 
this  destruction  draws,  the  more  frenzied  become 
the  efforts  of  the  realm  of  Satan.  He  even 
emerges  from  his  invisibility  ;  he  becomes  human 
in  the  Antichrist,  the  last  diabolical  birth  before 
the  end,  who  is  sometimes  endowed  with  the 
features  of  a  tyrant, ^  sometimes  with  those  of  a 

1  Job  I  and  2  ;   Zech.  3  ;    I  and  II  Chronicles. 

2  With  a  reminiscence  of  Daniel's  portrait  of  Antiochus 
Epiphanes. 


I08  THE   JEWISH   APOCALYPTIC 

false  prophet.^  The  most  remarkable  witnesses  to 
the  expectation  of  Antichrist  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment are  II  Thess.  2^-^^  and  Revelation  of  John  13. 
Then,  when  God  prepares  to  intervene,  mankind 
will  know  it  by  the  '  woes  of  Messiah.'  Failures 
of  harvest,  unheard-of  natural  portents,  especially 
signs  in  heaven,  bodily  degeneration  in  the  human 
race,  appalling  confusion  among  the  nations,  war 
in  the  family,  all  against  all,  the  incursion  of 
terrible,  mysterious  peoples,  among  whom,  in 
consequence  of  Ezekiel  38  sq.,  Gog  and  Magog 
are  the  most  renowned — these  are  the  woes. 
They  announce  the  day  of  divine  judgment  which 
is  then  to  dawn,  the  day  of  judgment  for  the  world, 
to  which  all  wiU  be  subjected,  a  day  on  which  the 
dead  arise.  This  resurrection  of  the  dead,  which 
is  for  the  most  part  realistically  conceived  as  a 
bodily  rising,  is  one  of  the  most  important  new 
views  of  late  Judaism.  It  exhibits  with  especial 
clearness  the  supersession  of  the  national  idea,  and 
the  assertion  of  the  individual  as  such.  Ancient 
Israel  had  known  nothing  of  any  resurrection  from 
the  dead.     Death  ended  all.    The  soul  passed  into 

1  In  reminiscence  of  the  third  book  of  the  Jewish  Sibylline 
Oracles. 


THE  JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC  IO9 

the  Sheol,  Hades,  the  realm  of  shadows,  of  which 
the  Psalmist  sings,  '  In  the  Sheol  who  shall  give 
thee  thanks  ?  '^  The  new  hope  first  meets  us  in 
Isaiah  24-27,  in  that  interpolation  well  called 
the  apocalypse  of  Isaiah,  and  written  towards  the 
end  of  the  third  century  B.C.  :  '  Awake  and  sing, 
ye  that  lie  in  the  dust,  for  thy  dew  is  a  dew  of  the 
hght,  and  the  earth  shall  cast  forth  the  shades. '^ 
Then  in  Daniel  we  read  the  celebrated  passage  ; 
'  Many  of  those  that  sleep  in  the  dust  of  the  earth 
shall  awake,  some  to  everlasting  life,  and  some  to 
shame  and  everlasting  contempt.  But  the  wise 
shall  shine  as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament, 
and  they  that  have  turned  many  to  righteousness 
as  the  stars  for  ever  and  ever.'^  It  is  well  worthy 
of  attention  that  here  many,  and  not  all,  are  said 
to  rise.  The  writer  is  thinking  especially  of  the 
martyrs.  Even  Luke  14^*  speaks  only  of  a  resur- 
rection of  the  righteous.  It  is  in  the  Ethiopic 
Enoch  that  we  first  find  the  general  resurrection 
of  the  dead,*  which  is  formulated  by  IV  Ezra  as 
follows  :  '  The  earth  gives  back  them  that  rest 
within,  the  dust  releases  them  that  sleep  in  it, 
the  chambers  restore  again  the  souls  that  were 

1  Ps.  66.  2  Is.  26".  3  Dan.  122.  *  511,  616. 


no  THE   JEWISH   APOCALYPTIC 

entrusted  to  them.'^  This  article  of  belief,  which 
was  derided  by  so  late  a  book  as  Ecclesiastes,^ 
was  acknowledged,  at  the  time  of  Jesus'  ministry, 
by  all  the  pious.  Jesus  himself  accepted  and 
sanctioned  it.^  Paul  treats  it  as  self-evident,* 
though  not  in  the  solid,  corporal  sense  of  the 
popular  imagination.  The  extraordinary,  indeed 
inestimable  significance  of  this  belief  lies  in  the 
supreme  importance  of  the  individual  person ; 
his  actions  and  omissions  make  all  the  difference. 
The  whole  Jewish  scheme  which  was  concerned 
only  with  this  life  is  finally  superseded.  This  is 
very  clearly  seen  in  the  manner  in  which  the  great 
day  of  Yahweh  is  now  conceived.  Once  it  was 
the  longed-for  day  on  which  Yahweh  is  to  take 
vengeance  on  the  foes  of  his  people,  exert  his  old 
nature  as  a  god  of  battle  in  bloody  slaughter,  and 
let  Israel  triumph  ;  and  now  it  has  become  the 
day  of  the  judgment  of  the  world.  All  men  that 
ever  lived  must  appear  before  the  throne  of  God 
and  receive  sentence  according  to  their  works — a 
purely  juridical  act.  Daniel  gives  a  magnificent 
metaphorical  description  :  '  I  gazed  on  till  thrones 
were  placed,  and  one  with  many  days  sat  down  ; 

I732.        2  319-22.         3  Mark  1218-27.        *  I  Cor,  1512  sq. 


THE  JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC  ^        III 

his  raiment  was  white  as  snow,  and  the  hair  of 
his  head  pure  as  wool ;  his  throne  was  of  fiery 
fiames,  and  had  wheels  of  burning  fire.  A  fiery 
stream  flowed  out  far  and  wide  before  him. 
Thousand  thousands  served  him,  and  ten  thousand 
times  ten  thousand  stood  at  his  bidding.  The 
court  sat,  and  the  books  were  opened.'^  In  the 
judgment,  which  goes  on  to  its  end  amid  mighty 
catastrophes  of  nature,  these  books  play  a  mo- 
mentous part.  The  names  or  the  deeds  of  men 
stand  written  in  them.  There  is,  as  we  have  seen, 
a  special  heavenly  secretary,  Michael.^  The  book 
of  hfe,  too,  is  occasionally  mentioned  separately. 
In  this  court  takes  place  the  final  decision  of  the 
lot  of  a  man.  After  exact  weighing  of  his  works 
he  either  enters  into  eternal  life  or  goes  to  eternal 
damnation.  It  is  the  works  that  decide.  This 
constitutes  the  link  with  legalistic  piety.  That  it  is 
in  reality  the  state  of  a  man's  spirit  which  finally 
turns  the  beam  is  a  profound  truth  that  remained 
completely  hidden  from  Judaism,  and  was  first 
set  upon  the  candlestick  by  Jesus.  But  it  is 
palpable  that  in  the  eyes  of  this  apocalyptic,  with 
its  world-wide  outlook,  it  was  no  longer  member- 
1  Dan.  70  sq.  *  Enoch  too  frequently  receives  this  office. 


112  THE   JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC 

ship  of  the  Jewish  people  but  individual  piety 
that  really  mattered.  Religious  individualism  has 
here  won  the  victory  over  the  national  religion, 
even  though  at  the  same  time  certain  nationalistic 
elements  still  held  their  ground  with  ineradicable 
tenacity.  This  is  and  remains,  in  spite  of  all  that 
is  fantastic  in  its  detailed  conceptions,  the  im- 
measurable significance  of  this  apocalyptic  specula- 
tion. It  prepared  the  way  for  the  word  of  Jesus, 
*  What  does  it  help  a  man  if  he  win  the  whole 
world  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?  '^  And  this  idea  of 
divine  retribution  for  every  individual  in  the 
future  life  casts  its  shadow  before  upon  the  time 
between  death  and  resurrection  to  judgment. 
The  old  conceptions  of  Sheol  were  more  and  more 
transformed.  In  the  intermediate  time  there  is 
a  foretaste  of  the  fate  to  come.  The  souls  of  the 
pious  come  into  pleasant,  lucid  regions  of  the 
underworld ;  they  can  already  behold  their  future 
blessedness  ;  or  they  are  preserved  in  subter- 
ranean chambers,  in  deep  peace,  under  the  care 
of  angels  ;  sometimes  they  are  even  already  in 
heaven.2  On  the  other  hand  the  souls  of  the 
ungodly  go  down  to  cold  and  dark  places,  are 

I  Matt.    1 626.  2  Luke   i628. 


THE   JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC  II3 

forced  to  wander  without  rest,  and  are  already- 
tormented.^  The  final  retribution  after  the 
judgment  is  thus  potent  beforehand.  Incidentally 
it  should  be  noted  that  in  Alexandrian  Judaism, 
and  also  occasionally  in  that  of  Palestine,  the 
final  retribution  follows  immediately  after  death. 
The  soul  of  the  pious  man  comes  at  once  to  God  ; 
that  of  the  ungodly  is  at  once  annihilated.  Here, 
too,  Greek  ideas,  Platonic  ideas,  have  often 
exerted  an  influence  ;  but  we  cannot  now  enter 
into  detail.  In  the  main  stream  of  Palestinian 
Judaism  it  is  always  after  the  resurrection,  in  the 
divine  judgment,  that  the  human  soul  is  overtaken 
by  its  final  destiny.  And  in  what  does  this 
consist  ?  First  of  all  the  pious  receive  eternal 
life.  They  enter  upon  a  new,  supernatural,  in- 
transient  existence  in  the  divine  glory.  Light 
and  life  are  here  very  closely  allied. ^  It  is  ex- 
tremely clear  that  this  new  Ufe  was  nevertheless 
contemplated  in  earthly  colours.  Man  cannot 
escape  from  the  images  of  the  Ufe  that  surrounds 
him  ;  his  thought  is  bounded  by  earthly  forms. 
The  Jewish  people  certainly  formed  very  sensuous, 
realistic  conceptions  of  the  life  eternal,  as  indeed 

iLuke  i62«.  2  Dan.  128  sq.     Ethiop.  Enoch  58*. 

I 


114  THE  JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC 

often  happens  even  in  our  own  day,  and  must 
always  continue  to  happen.  The  pious  enter 
into  the  Paradise,  the  Garden  of  Eden  transferred 
to  heaven  ;  this  garden,  in  which  according  to 
the  legend  Adam  dwelt,  is  now  said  to  have  existed 
before  all  creation.  There  they  lead  a  joyous 
being  by  the  tree  of  life,  whose  fruits,  which  confer 
immortahty,  they  enjoy,  and  by  the  water  of  life, 
which  they  may  now  drink.  Connected  with 
this  is  the  idea  of  a  heavenly  Jerusalem,  which  is 
the  old,  earthly  Jerusalem  transferred  to  heaven, 
and  is  now  depicted  in  the  most  radiant  colours.^ 
That  is  the  glorious  fate  of  the  pious.  And  the 
ungodly  ?  They  go  into  eternal  damnation. 
Darkness  and  destruction  are  here  closely  allied. 
They  are  tortured  or  annihilated.  Fire  plays  a 
great  part  in  these  conceptions.  The  terrible  and 
hideous  vision  of  hell  takes  form.  While  accord- 
ing to  the  older  view  the  enemies  of  Israel  were 
to  be  destroyed  with  pain  in  the  valley  of  Jehosha- 
phat,  now  the  impious  are  to  be  tortured  for  ever 
in  a  subterranean  or  celestial  place  of  torment,  a 
fiery  furnace  or  a  lake  of  fire.  These  are  the  two 
different  fates  which  follow  upon  the  universal 

1  Revelation  of  John  21. 


THE  JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC  II5 

judgment,  with  which  the  present,  terrestrial 
world  passes  away  ;  the  mode  of  its  passing  is 
sometimes  taken  to  be  a  vast  conflagration.  And 
then  the  new  heaven  and  the  new  earth,  which 
were  once  spoken  of  figuratively  in  Isaiah  65^'', 
come  in  complete  reality,  the  second,  supernatural, 
divine  world  of  the  good.  This  was  the  resplend- 
ent image  offered  to  hope  by  the  apocalyptic 
writers,  an  image  which  is,  however — inevitably, 
as  we  have  seen — depicted  in  earthly  colours.  It 
so  comes  to  pass  that  we  often  find  in  their  descrip- 
tions a  grotesque  mixture  of  concrete  earthliness 
with  the  celestial  and  the  supernatural,  so  that 
at  the  first  glance  we  may  well  doubt  whether  we 
are  stiU  amid  the  pictures  of  the  old  or  already  in 
the  new.  But  taken  as  a  whole  there  is  no  possible 
doubt  that  the  apocalyptic  makes  a  decisive, 
thoroughgoing  cleavage  between  this  life  and  the 
next ;  it  represents  a  dualistic  theory  of  the 
universe.  And  what  has  become  of  the  Messiah  ? 
Within  the  frame  of  this  picture  he  seems  to  have 
no  place.  In  fact  there  is  a  series  of  apocalypses 
which  do  not  mention  him  at  all.^  But  where  he 
does  appear  he  has  become  quite  another  being. 
1  E.g.,  Daniel,  and  the  Ascension  of  Moses. 


Il6  THE   JEWISH   APOCALYPTIC 

We  may  even  speak  of  a  new,  a  second  Messianic 
figure,  so  great  is  the  transformation.  The  son 
of  David,  the  ideal  of  a  theocratic  king,  who  rules 
over  the  Jewish  people  in  Palestine  with  justice 
and  righteousness,  has  become  a  heavenly, 
spiritual  being,  who  existed  with  God  before  the 
creation  of  the  world, ^  and  remained  safe  in  his 
presence,  to  emerge  and  descend  at  the  end  of 
the  age  upon  the  clouds  of  heaven,  surrounded 
by  angels.  His  title  runs  :  the  Son  of  Man.  The 
most  remarkable  fact  is  this,  that  the  new  figure 
of  Messiah  shows  no  trace  of  a  gradual  develop- 
ment, but  starts  into  being  in  a  moment,  like 
Athene  from  the  head  of  Zeus.  We  find  it  in  the 
imagery  of  the  Ethiopic  Enoch,  especially  chapters 
46-49,2  and  again  in  IV  Ezra  13^-^^,  25,51  There 
is  a  tendency  to  connect  it  with  the  celebrated 
passage  in  Daniel,  7^^  sq.  :  'I  saw  in  the  night 
visions,  and  lo  there  came  one  like  unto  a  son  of 
man,  and  he  came  to  him  of  many  days,  and  they 
brought  him  near  before  him.  And  there  was 
given  him  dominion  and  honour  and  lordship,  that 
all  peoples,  nations,  and  languages  should  serve 

1  The  '  pre-existence  '  of  Messiah. 
2  Consider  more  particularly  482-6,  492. 


THE  JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC  II7 

him.  His  rule  shall  be  everlasting  and  shall  not 
pass  away,  and  his  kingdom  shall  not  be  destroyed.' 
But  neither  the  new  conception  of  Messiah  nor  the 
title  Son  of  Man  has  its  origin  in  this  passage. 
Apart  from  the  fact  that  Daniel  is  certainly  not 
speaking  of  the  Messiah,  but  of  the  people  of 
Israel — though  on  this  point  his  later  readers 
might  easily  fall  into  a  misapprehension — the  figure 
of  this  son  of  man  in  this  context  in  Daniel  is 
itself  a  riddle,  which  calls  for  explanation.  It  is 
most  probable  that  we  have  here  the  influences 
of  foreign  religions,  though  we  are  certainly  not 
able  to  point  them  out  exactly.  Most  of  the 
apocalyptic  writers  desired  to  retain  the  Messiah. 
But  the  earthly  ruler  was  no  longer  applicable  ; 
so  he  was  united  with  a  divine,  spiritual  being,  who 
must  have  possessed  the  prototype  of  human 
form  ;  he  too  was  transferred  to  heaven,  in  con- 
formity with  the  supernatural  character  of  the 
apocalyptic.  That  this  new  heavenly  Messiah  is  a 
patched-up  compromise,  who  would  be  better 
away,  is  easily  seen  in  the  uncertainty  of  the 
writers  regarding  his  function.  In  Enoch  48*  sq. 
we  read  :  '  He  wiU  be  a  staff  for  the  righteous 
and  holy,  that  they  may  lean  on  him  and  not 


Il8  THE   JEWISH   APOCALYPTIC 

fall ;  he  wdll  be  the  Ught  of  the  people  and  the 
hope  of  those  that  are  troubled  in  heart.  All 
that  dwell  upon  the  mainland  will  fall  down  before 
him  and  adore  and  give  praise,  laud  and  extol 
the  name  of  the  lord  of  spirits.  To  this  end  was 
he  chosen.'  How  indefinite  all  this  is,  and  what 
is  the  use  of  it  ?  According  to  IV  Ezra  he  shall 
redeem  creation,  create  the  new  order  of  things, 
destroy  the  army  of  the  nations  that  bands  itself 
against  him,  and  protect  united  Israel.^  Here  we 
can  detect  a  much  stronger  echoing  of  the  old 
ideas  of  Messiah.  A  much  greater  advance  is 
made  when  this  celestial  figure  is  actually  ap- 
pointed by  God  to  be  the  judge  of  the  world. ^ 
It  is  of  course  true  even  here  that  the  new  image 
of  the  Messiah  nowhere  appears  quite  unadul- 
terated, but  is  considerably  alloyed  with  old 
characteristics — indeed,  that  can  be  seen  quite 
clearly  in  the  Revelation  of  John — but  that  does 
not  affect  the  fact  that  in  reality  there  are  two 
different  pictures.  The  desire  to  combine  the  old 
picture  with  the  new  has  led  to  the  peculiar 
doctrine  of  an  intermediate  Messianic  kingdom. 

1 IV  Ezra  1328,  34-38,  49. 
8Eth.  Enoch  51,  55,  61-63  ;  cf.  Matt.  2531-46. 


THE  JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC  II9 

Before  the  general  resurrection  and  the  great 
judgment  Messiah  shall  reign  with  the  righteous 
upon  earth.  The  duration  of  this  kingdom  is 
variously  given.  The  reign  of  a  thousand  years, 
the  millennium,^  has  become  especially  celebrated 
through  the  Revelation  of  John  20^,  and  has 
often  played  a  momentous  part  in  the  history  of 
the  church.  But  what  gives  the  newer  image  of 
Messiah  its  highest  significance  is  the  fact  that 
the  Messianic  consciousness  of  Jesus  was  founded 
upon  it.  The  old  idea  of  Messiah  could  not 
possibly,  in  view  of  the  whole  nature  of  Jesus,  be 
adopted  by  him.  But  the  new  idea  opened  out 
to  him  the  possibiHty  of  connecting  his  unique 
religious  consciousness  of  sonship  and  vocation 
with  the  highest  title  that  Judaism  possessed. 
Jesus  then  beUeved,  not  that  he  was  the  Messiah 
(in  the  old  national  sense)  but  that  he  would  be- 
come the  Messiah  (in  the  new  apocalyptic  sense), 
that  he  would  come  as  Messiah  upon  the  clouds 
of  heaven. 2 

It  used  to  be  a  favourite  device  to  associate 


1  Chiliasmus,  or  Millenarianism. 

2  See,   for  a  more  detailed  exposition,  Bousset :    '  Jesus,' 
Chapter  III. 


120  THE   JEWISH   APOCALYPTIC 

the  apocalyptic  with  IsraeHte  prophecy.  But  the 
apocalyptists  themselves  do  not  claim  to  be 
prophets.^  Prophecy  is  extinguished,  and  they 
are  the  wise  men,  privileged  above  the  crowd,  to 
whom  the  secrets  of  God  have  been  confided. 
In  fact,  then,  and  in  spite  of  a  few  Hnes  of  con- 
nexion,^  the  difference  is  really  profound.  The 
visions  alone  are  enough  to  make  this  clear.  The 
prophets  had  real  visions,  inner  experiences  which 
convulsed  the  soul,  the  forms  of  which  they 
transferred,  with  great  agitation,  to  the  world  of 
reahty  outside  them.  If  this  transference,  this 
imputation  of  external  reality  was  illusion,  still 
the  inner  experiences  were  intensely  real.  The 
creative  power  of  God  worked  in  them  from  time 
to  time  with  compulsion,  with  enormous,  original 
force,  often  against  their  own  human  thoughts 
and  opinions.  It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  the 
apocalyptists  may  also  have  had  such  actual 
visions^  ;   but  the  vision  is  certainly  in  their  case 

1  The  Revelation  of  John,  enveloped  as  it  is  in  the  Christian 
consciousness,   forms  a  not  unintelligible   exception. 

2  We  meet  these  especially  in  Joel  3  and  in  IV  Ezra  i 
and  Zechariah. 

3  There  are  even  signs  to  be  observed  that  the  Rabbis  of 
the  first  century  a.d.  were  themselves  not  without  ecstatic 
experiences. 


THE  JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC  121 

for  the  most  part  a  mere  form  of  literary  art. 
They  write  in  the  visionary  style,  just  as  we  may 
write  in  the  style  of  the  fairy  tale.  The  imitative 
instinct  which  was  so  characteristic  of  the  apoca- 
lyptic comes  clearly  to  light  in  this  use  of  the 
prophetic  ecstasy.  The  artificial  character  of 
most  apocalyptic  visions  reveals  itself — apart 
altogether  from  their  great  number — especially 
in  the  fact  that  it  is  quite  impossible  to  unite  them 
into  one  consistent  spectacle.  We  are  presented 
with  an  abundance  of  the  most  heterogeneous 
and  often  impossible  details.  The  extraordinarily 
complicated,  elaborate,  and  imnatural  character 
of  these  visions  points  to  the  play  of  a  rankly 
luxuriant  imagination.  If,  for  instance,  the  Re- 
velation of  John  be  read  from  this  point  of  view, 
the  proofs  will  present  themselves  in  superflux. 
The  vaticination,  too,  of  the  prophets  and  of  the 
apocalyptists  is  different.  What  the  prophets 
aim  at  is  the  clear  understanding  of  their  own 
contemporary  conditions ;  the  whole  interest  of 
the  apocalyptists  lies  in  the  future.  The  prophets 
are  men  who  enter  passionately  into  the  great 
questions  and  contests  of  their  time,  but,  filled 
with  the  spirit  of  Yahweh,  will  not  let  themselves 


122  THE   JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC 

be  dazzled  by  externals ;  taught  by  the  past 
they  have  gained  a  genuine  insight  into  historical 
events,  and  are  so  able  to  show  a  right  estimate  of 
the  future.  On  the  other  hand  the  apocalyptists 
despair  of  the  world  altogether.  Past  and  present 
are  so  bad  that  one  can  only  learn  from  them  that 
this  world  must  needs  fall  a  prey  to  destruction, 
and  a  new,  good  world  come  in  its  place.  What 
the  apocalyptic  aims  at  is  to  gain  a  conception, 
here  and  now,  of  that  future  world,  and  above  all 
to  know  when  it  is  to  come.  And  accordingly  it 
does  not  give  us  prediction,  but  uncontrollable 
speculation  bound  up  with  divination  :  for  the 
apocalyptic  calculation  of  coming  events  is  nothing 
else.  And  how  different  is  the  kind  of  future 
which  the  prophets  and  the  apocalyptists  con- 
template !  The  prophets  are  predominantly  con- 
cerned with  the  future  which  stands  connected 
with  the  present.  Even  when  they  think  of  a 
more  distant  future,  and  however  much  they  may 
transform  and  idealize,  it  still  remains  always 
terrestrial,  within  the  sphere  of  national  expecta- 
tion. On  the  contrary  the  apocalyptists  are 
concerned  with  a  future  which  shall  arrive  through 
an    utter    breach    with    the    present — the    new, 


THE  JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC  I23 

celestial  aeon,  which  is  utterly  different  from  the 
world  that  now  is.  The  duaUsm  of  their  world- 
theory  is  the  unbridgeable  chasm  which  separates 
apocalyptic  from  prophecy.  Prophecy  knows  no 
such  dualism,  and,  consistently  with  this,  knows 
nothing  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  the 
universal  judgment,  paradise  and  hell ;  the  whole 
detail  in  the  two  settings  forth  of  the  future  is 
different ;  and,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Messianic 
hopes  had  to  undergo  a  complete  transformation. 
The  question,  then,  forces  itself  most  strongly 
upon  us,  what  is  the  source  of  all  this  new  element 
in  the  apocalypses  ;  above  all  the  new  duaUstic 
theory,  the  great  dramatic  fight  to  an  end  between 
the  kingdom  of  Satan  and  the  kingdom  of  God^ 
ending  in  the  universal  judgment,  with  all  its 
accompanying  phenomena  and  its  consequences  ? 
It  cannot  be  denied,  when  this  is  compared  with 
the  earlier  Israelite  religion,  that  something  new 
is  here  to  be  seen.  We  may  remind  ourselves 
that  in  the  earlier  time  even  evil  was  occasionally 
associated  with  Yahweh^ ;  that  in  the  prophets 
evil  arises  in  the  will  of  man,  in  his  disobedience, 
his  perversity,  but  no  trace  is  to  be  found  of  any 

1 II  Sam.  24-^ 


124  THE   JEWISH   APOCALYPTIC 

Satanic  realm  of  evil.  We  might  be  tempted  to 
derive  the  new  matter  in  the  apocalyptic  from 
Daniel.  It  is  certainly  evident  that  the  whole 
of  the  later  apocalyptic  takes  its  stand  on  this 
work,  and  dependence  upon  it  cannot  be  denied. 
Must  we  then  regard  the  author  of  Daniel  as  an 
eminent  creative  personality,  whom  the  later 
writers  have  merely  imitated  ?  The  work  itself, 
however,  certainly  gives  us  no  such  impression.  I 
have  already  pointed  out,  while  considering  the 
new  Messianic  idea  in  the  apocalyptic,  that  a 
close  consideration  of  this  book  impresses  us  with 
the  conviction  that  Daniel,  too,  was  working  with 
traditional  materials,  which  do  not  consistently 
cohere.  This  is,  indeed,  the  case  when  we  con- 
sider the  writing  in  other  aspects ;  and  so  the 
question  at  once  arises,  whence  did  Daniel  obtain 
the  new  element  ?  It  is  not  without  justification 
that  an  appeal  is  made  to  the  severe  oppression 
of  the  Maccabean  age,  under  which,  in  this  book 
of  Daniel,  the  first  apocalypse  meets  us.  Much 
may  be  explained  by  reference  to  this,  especially 
for  instance  the  eager  expectation  of  a  speedy 
end,  the  judgment.  That  time  under  Antiochus 
Epiphanes  was  so  terrible  that  we  can  understand 


THE   JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC  125 

how   such   a   yearning   could   arise.     We   might 
perhaps  also  assume  that  the  fate  of  the  righteous, 
who  suffered  a  martyr's  death,  wrung  the  hearts 
of  pious  men,  and  called  forth  the  hope  that  they 
would  not  be  allowed  to  remain  in  death ;    God 
must,  for  his  righteousness'  sake,  awaken  them 
unto  Ufe.     But  even  here  all  that  is  really  com- 
prehensible is  that  an  already  existent  belief  in 
the  resurrection  should  have  been  laid  hold  of, 
and  not  that  such  a  belief  could  have  been  actually 
engendered  by  the  desire  of  certain  individuals. 
Above  all,  the  rise  of  a  theory  of  the  world  which 
was  at  once  dualistic  and  individualistic,   such 
as  that  in  which  this  belief  in  the  resurrection  was 
firmly  planted,  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  necessary 
or  even  intelligible  outcome  of  the  confusion  of 
those  times.     It  is  remarkable  that  the  figure  of 
the  heavenly  Messiah  is  first  found  in  the  Ethiopia 
Enoch,  long  after  the  time  of  terror  was  past.     No 
external  origin  in  an  historical  situation  can  be 
estabUshed.     There  is  only  one  possibiUty  left  to 
explain   the   new   element,   namely   that   foreign 
religions    have    exerted    an    influence    on    later 
Judaism.     First  and  foremost  we  might  consider 
the  Persian  reUgion,  with  which  Judaism  came 


126  THE  JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC 

into  contact  in  the  Babylonian  plain.  The  Baby- 
lonian empire  was  superseded  by  the  Persian. 
We  should  remember  the  friendly  relation  in 
which  Judaism  stood  to  this  very  Persian  power. 
Cyrus  permitted  the  Jews  to  return  from  Babylon  ; 
in  the  second  Isaiah  he  is  even  denoted  as  the 
Messiah.  In  other  matters,  too,  the  Persians 
showed  kindness  towards  the  Jews.  It  is  there- 
fore not  difficult  to  conceive  that  religious  elements 
might  have  penetrated  into  Judaism  from  a 
Persian  source.  And  in  this  Persian  religion, 
which  likewise  possesses  its  apocalyptic,  we  find 
what  we  need.  Duahsm  was  its  own,  ancient, 
original  belief.  Ahura-Mazda  (Ormuzd),  the 
supreme  good  God,  and  Angra-Mainyu  (Ahriman), 
the  evil  spirit,  had  always  confronted  one  another 
in  sharp  antagonism.  The  whole  history  of  the 
world  is  a  varying  contest  between  these  two 
powers,  which  ends  with  a  decisive  victory  of  the 
good  God.  Here  we  have  the  two  worlds — the 
old  world  is  at  last  destroyed  with  fire — the 
general  judgment,  the  resurrection  of  the  dead 
to  be  judged,  the  terrible  torture  of  sinners.  In- 
deed all  that  we  seek  is  here  to  be  found,  at  least 
the   essential,    duahsm   and   world-encompassing 


THE   JEWISH  APOCALYPTIC  127 

speculation.  It  must  not  be  denied  for  a  moment, 
it  is  rather  to  be  expected  from  the  first,  that  there 
are  differences,  some  of  which  are  important, 
between  Persian  and  Jewish  apocalyptic.  No- 
body maintains  that  the  Persian  apocal3rptic  was 
taken  over  wholesale,  lock,  stock,  and  barrel. 
But  we  may  hold  that  at  decisive  points  Persian 
influences  were  operative.  Besides  the  Persian 
religion  those  of  Babylon  and  Egypt  seem  also  to 
have  affected  Judaism,  which  had  likewise  come 
into  close  contact  with  them  both.  There  are 
numerous  points  at  which  that  can  be  shown  with 
great  certainty.  In  the  region,  for  instance,  of 
the  doctrine  of  angels  and  demons  we  come  across 
conceptions  which,  while  they  are  unintelligible 
as  purely  Jewish  products,  are  at  once  explained 
by  a  glance  at  the  Babylonian  religion.  We 
cannot  here  pursue  this  subject  into  detail.  It 
must  always  be  remembered  that  we  are  dealing 
with  the  period  of  world-wide  Hellenistic  civiliza- 
tion, the  great  age  of  the  mixture  of  religions. 
From  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great  the  different 
peoples  mingled  hke  rushing  waters,  and  with 
them  their  ideas  and  their  religions.  In  spite  of 
the  mighty  reaction  of  the  Maccabean  age  Judaism 


128  CONCLUSION 

was  no  longer  able  to  hold  itself  aloof.  On  the 
contrary  we  observe  in  all  fields  that  late  Judaism 
exhibits  specifically  the  character  of  a  mixed 
religion. 


CONCLUSION 

If  we  now  look  back  once  more  over  the  region 
which  we  have  traversed,  in  order  to  realize  as  a 
whole  the  religious  tone  and  temper  of  the  Judaism 
of  that  time,  our  soul  stands  face  to  face  with  a 
remarkable  scene,  which  we  contemplate  with 
mixed  feelings.  With  what  fervour,  yea,  with 
what  passion,  did  this  unique  people  long  for  the 
living  God !  Who  can  read  the  never-ageing 
Psalms  without  feeling,  '  Here  is  genuine  religious 
feeling  at  its  source  ;  here  is  also  true  religion '  ? 
There  is  no  other  people  which  even  approaches 
the  importance  for  religion  of  the  Jews.  Paul 
was  well  warranted  in  testifying  of  his  own  nation 
that  they  had  a  zeal  for  God.^  And  yet  a  mis- 
guided zeal,  which  found  no  true  satisfaction. 
We  have  made  acquaintance  with  the  whole  gamut 
of  human  feeling,  from  the  most  tremulous  anguish 

1  Rom.  io2. 


CONCLUSION  129 

of  a  profound  sense  of  sin  to  a  man's  most  arrogant 
confidence  in  his  own  performance.  Alongside 
the  individual  piety  stood  the  strong  tenacitj^ 
of  the  nationahstic  religion,  beside  the  Hfe  lived 
in  the  present  stood  the  life  lived  in  the  future, 
beside  the  spirit  of  penance  stood  the  spirit  of 
triumph.  And  between  them,  all  the  many- 
various  shades  of  feeling.  We  see  a  heaving  and 
tossing,  out  of  which  now  this  mood  emerges,  now 
that.  But  one  thing  we  miss,  the  unshakable 
rock  in  the  raging  sea,  the  unity  in  multiplicity, 
the  sure  peace  amid  the  tumult.  He  who  surveys 
the  whole  must  say,  after  all,  Judaism  lacked  that 
stabiUty  of  confidence  which  is  certain  of  the  issue. 
Where  one  day  the  most  emphatic  confidence 
was  ostensibly  felt  the  next  day  might  see  the 
most  painful  insecurity.  At  the  time  of  the 
appearance  of  Jesus  the  Jewish  religion  oscillated 
dubiously  between  extremes.  There  was  no  cer- 
tainty of  salvation. 

Amid  this  flux  and  reflux  of  the  most  various 
religious  moods  Jesus  appeared,  and  wrought,  for 
all  his  dependence  upon  the  conceptions  of  his 
age  and  the  surroundings  under  which  he  grew  to 
manhood,   a   complete   change   of   value   in  the 

K 


130  CONCLUSION 

decisive,  fundamental  factors.  The  Jew  had  a 
high  opinion,  when  all  was  said,  of  his  own  person 
and  the  worth  of  his  own  performance.  Jesus, 
on  the  contrary,  has  taught  all  ages  the  unforget- 
table lesson  that  when  the  single  man  has  done  all 
that  it  was  his  duty  to  do,  he  is  an  unprofitable 
servant.^  Jesus  has  destroyed  the  religious  worth 
of  single  performances  as  such,  and — in  spite  of 
all  his  diligent  insistence  on  active  goodness — 
pointed  to  the  fountain  of  a  truly  good  and  heart- 
felt intent  as  the  really  momentous  thing.  On 
the  other  hand  the  Jewish  thought  of  God  was 
intrinsically  mean,  for  he  was  conceived  in  the 
image  of  a  strict  taskmaster.  Jesus,  on  the 
contrary,  has  taught  all  ages  unforgettably  his 
immeasurably  grand  conception  of  God,  which 
culminates  in  the  saying  that  one  sinner  who 
repents  is  of  more  value  in  his  eyes  than  ninety- 
nine  righteous  persons,  who  need  no  repentance.* 
In  its  deepest  sense  he  set  upon  the  candlestick 
that  word,  '  A  man  sees  what  is  before  his  eyes, 
but  the  Lord  looks  upon  the  heart. '^  What  Jesus 
brought  could  not  but  be  felt,  and  was  felt  indeed, 
as  a  wonderful  message  of  joy,  whose  words  fell 
iLuke  J710.  2  Luke  15';  3  1  Sam.  16'. 


CONCLUSION  131 

like  sunshine  into  the  hearts  of  all  that  laboured 
and  were  heavy  laden,^  all  those  that,  beneath 
the  crushing  load  of  the  single  legal  ordinances, 
could  neither  attain  to  true  earthly  energy  nor  to 
true  communion  with  God.  Jesus  gave  the  great 
and  needful  hberation  from  all  reHgious  frittering 
and  futility.  He  set  man  straightway  before 
God  himself,  but  before  the  face  of  a  Father, 
bringing  us  at  once  a  mighty  obligation  and  a 
mighty  enfranchisement.  Thereupon  the  whole 
confusing  multipHcity  of  individual  works  passed 
out  of  thought ;  Jesus  brought  rest  to  the  soul,  the 
only  true  and  certain  peace  of  a  heart  made  one 
with  God. 

iMatt.  ii2». 


APPENDIX 

I.     Historical  Table  from  the  Exile  to  the  Destruction 
OF  Jerusalem. 

This  longer  period  is  chosen  because  the  stage  of  develop- 
ment in  which  the  Jewish  religion  stood  at  the  time  of  Jesus' 
ministry  began  with  the  Exile  and  ended  with  the  destruction 
of  Jerusalem,  It  was  not  until  after  70  a.d.  that  complete 
legalistic  ossification,  with  elimination  of  the  popular  piety 
and  the  apocalyptic,  set  in — the  supremacy  of  the  Rabbis. 
Only  the  most  important  dates  are  here  given. 

B.C. 

586-538  The  Jews  in  exile  in  Babylonia. 

538  Cyrus,  king   of  the  Persians,  puts  an  end  to 

the  Babylonian  empire  and  permits  the  Jews 

to  return.     First  return  of  the  exiles  under 

Zerubbabel  and  Joshua. 
538-332  Palestine  under  Persian  suzerainty  (from  Cyrus 

to  Darius  III). 
458  Return  of  a  second  body  of  exiles  under  Ezra. 

445  Nehemiah  governor  in  Jerusalem. 

444  The  Law  is  published  by  Ezra  :    probably  not 

the  whole  five  '  books  of  Moses,'  but  chiefly 

one  of  the  sources  of  these  books,  namely,  the 

so-called    Priestly    Codex.     Pledging    of    the 

people  to  keep  the  Law. 
332  Alexander  the  Great  destroys  the  Persian  empire, 

and  so  gains  sovereignty  over  the  Jews. 
332-320  Palestine  under  Macedonian  governors. 

320  Capture  of   Jerusalem    by   the   Egyptian  king 

Ptolemy  I,  Lagi. 


HISTORICAL  TABLE  I33 


B.C. 


320-197  Palestine  alternately  under  Egj^tian  and  Syrian 

rule. 

301-264  Happy  time  of  peace  under  the  mild  govern- 

ment of  the  Egyptian  dynasty  of  the  Ptolemies. 

197-167  Palestine  under  the  Syrian  rule  of  the  Seleucids. 

175-164  Antiochus  IV,  Epiphanes,  king  of  the  Syrians. 

175-168  Forcible  Hellenising  of  the  Jews  by  Antiochus 

Epiphanes.  Attempt  to  destroy  the  Jewish 
religion.     Profanation  of  the  Temple. 

167-142  The  Jewish  war  of  liberation  under  the  leader- 

ship of  the  Maccabees  (the  priests  Mattathias 
and  his  sons  Judas,  Jonathan,  Simon)  against 
the  Syrians. 

165  New  consecration  of  the  Temple. 

142  Recognition  of  the  independence  of  Judaea  by 

the  Syrian  king  Demetrius. 

141  The  Maccabees  or  Hasmonaeans  (so  called  from 

their  ancestor  Hasmon)  are  by  popular  decision 
recognized  as  the  high-priestly  and  princely 
dynasty. 

141-63  Palestine   under  the   rule   of  the  Hasmonaean 

dynasty  (Simon,  John  Hyrcanus,  Aristobulus 
I,  Alexander  Jannaeus,  Alexandra,  Aristo- 
bulus II). 

63  Pompey    takes    Jerusalem.      From    this   point 

onwards  continuous  Roman  rule. 

37B.C.-44A.D.  Frequently  interrupted  rule  of  the  Idumaean 
family  of  the  Herods  in  Palestine  as  a  whole 
or  parts  of  it,  under  Roman  suzerainty. 

37  B.C.-4  B.C.  Herod  the  Great. 

4B.C.-39A.D.  Herod  Antipas  ruler  over  Galilee  and  Peraea  : 
A.D.  Jesus'  sovereign. 

27-36  Pontius  Pilate  procurator  of  Judaea. 

about  29  Public  appearance  of  Jesus,  "i  During  the  reign  of 
,       .  T-.     XT.     r  T  V    the  Roman  Emperor 

about  30         Death  of  Jesus.  j    Tiberius,  14-37. 

66-73  The  great  fight  against  Rome. 

70  Destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus. 


134 


II.    Chronological    Survey    of    the 
Literary  Sources. 

B.C. 

about  I 80 


MOST      IMPORTANT 


The  Wisdom  of  Jesus  Sirach,  a  voluminous 
collection  of  sayings,  written  originally  la 
Hebrew,-  with  the  object  of  showing  how  a 
happy  life  can  be  led  in  practical  wisdom. 
(About  130  translated  into  Greek  by  the 
grandson  of  the  author.) 

165  The  Old  Testament  book  of   Daniel,  the  first 

apocalypse. 

about  140  Close  of  the  Old  Testament  collection  of  Psalms. 
The  songs  belong  altogether  to  the  post-exilic 
time.     Many  are  of  late  date. 

about  140  The  third  book  of  the  Sibylline  Oracles,  a  kind 
of  Alexandrine  apocalypse,  which  contains 
little  of  religious  value. 

about  140  The  book  of  Esther  relates  in  the  form  of  a 
novel,  with  passionate  hatred  against 
foreigners,  the  origin  of  the  feast  of  Purim, 
and  has  Ukewise  found  a  place  in  the  Old 
Testament. 

about  130  The  Jewish  writing  underlying  the  Testament 
of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs  (in  the  time  of 
Hyrcanus).  Admonitions,  given  before  death 
by  the  twelve  sons  of  Jacob  to  their  children, 
concerning  jealousy,  envy,  chastity,  arrogance, 
courage,  etc.  The  writing,  as  we  now  have 
it,  contains  Christian  interpolations. 

about  1 30- 1 00  The  chief  constituent  part  of  the  Ethiopia 
Enoch,  an  important  apocalypse.  The  figura- 
tive discourses,  chapters  37-71,  belong  to  the 
years  104-78  and  are  not  of  Christian,  but 
like  the  rest  of  Jewish  origin. 

about  130-70  The  book  of  Judith,  a  legend,  written  from  the 
Pharisaic  point  of  view,  of  the  murder  of  the 
general  Holophernes,  who  was  in  the  service 
of  Nebuchadnezzar,  by  Judith. 


SURVEY  OF  LITERARY  SOURCES 


135 


about  70 


63-48 


about  100-63  The  first  book  of  the  Maccabees,  in  the  main  an 
excellent,  credible  account  of  the  Maccabean 
revolt. 

The  book  of  Jubilees  or  the  Little  Genesis,  a 
haggadic  commentary  on  Genesis  (time  of 
Alexandra) . 

The  Psalms  of  Solomon,  written  from  the  Pharis- 
aic point  of  view,  with  a  strong  emphasis  on 
the  Messianic  hope. 

The  book  of  Tobit,  a  novel-like  account  of  the 
fortunes  of  a  pious  Jew,  which  was  written 
during  the  last  200  years  B.C.,  in  any  case 
before  the  beginning  of  the  Herodian  Temple 
in  21  B.C. 

The  second  book  of  the  Maccabees,  an  un- 
historical  account,  written  in  an  edifying  vein, 
especially  of  the  time  of  Judas  Maccabaeus ; 
Pharisaic  tone  ;  actually  an  attack  on  the 
Maccabees. 

The  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  one  of  the  most 
important  writings  of  Alexandrian  Judaism, 
which  was  written  between  Sirach  and  PhilO/ 
probably  nearer  to  the  time  of  Philo. 
4  B.C.-6  A.D.  The  Ascension  of  Moses,  a  fragment  of  an 
apocalypse,  in  which  Moses  gives  his  successor 
Joshua  a  revelation  concerning  future  events 
till  the  end  of  the  world  ;  probably  not  by  a 
Zealot,  but  by  a  pious  man  who  set  himself 
against  all  sanctimonious  hjrpocrisy. 

The   hterary  work    of  the  Alexandrian  Philo. 

In  the  first  century  :  the  fourth  book  of  the 
Maccabees,  an  edifying  philosophical  sermon 
on  the  command  of  the  passions  by  the  reason, 
guided  by  the  Law  ;    of  Alexandrian  origin. 

The  Slavonic  Enoch,  in  the  first  half  of  the  first 
century,  certainly  before  70  a.d.,  clearly  shows 
the  combination  of  Judaism  with  Platonic, 
Parsi,  Egyptian,  and  Babylonian  elements. 


(?) 


(?) 


(?) 


A.D. 

about  20 
(?) 


(?) 


136  SURVEY   OF   LITERARY   SOURCES 

A.D. 

76-79  The  work    of   the    Jewish    historian   Josephus 

'  on  the  Jewish  War.' 
93-94  Josephus'  Jewish  Archaeology  (Antiquities). 

about  81-96  IV   Ezra,  the   most  important   Jewish  apoca- 
lypse, whose  object  is  to  comfort  the  Jews, 
driven  almost  to  despair  by  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem,  with  the  nearness  of  the  new  aeon 
and  its  solution  of  all  riddles. 
about  100       The    Syriac    apocalypse    of   Baruch,   with  the 
same  object  as  IV  Ezra,  and  no  doubt  written 
later, 
about  50-150  The   writings   united  in   the   New   Testament. 
Among  these  the  genuine  words  of  Jesus,  the 
old  sources  of  the  Gospels  and  Acts,  the  letters 
of  Paul,  written  by  a  whilom  Pharisee,  and 
the  Revelation  of  John  (which  has  made  con- 
siderable use  of  originally  Jewish  material) 
offer  a  rich  field  of  material  for  the  under- 
standing of  later  Judaism. 
All  the  sources  here  named,  so  far  as  they  are  not  contained 
in  the  Old  or  the  New  Testament,  with  exception  of  the 
Slavonic  Enoch  and  the  works  of  Philo  and  Josephus,  are 
accessible  to  every  reader  of  German  in   the    work    of    E. 
Kantsch,    '  Die   Apokryphen   und   die   Pseudepigraphen   des 
Alten  Testaments,'  2  vols.,   1900. 

Protestant  and  Jewish  scholars  differ  in  their  use  of  sources 
to  this  extent,  that  in  depicting  the  Judaism  of  Jesus'  time 
the  protestants  prefer  the  above  named  contemporary  sources, 
while  the  Jews  pay  more  regard  to  later  sources.  Among 
these  should  be  mentioned  the  Mishna  (doctrine)  and 
Tosephta  (completion,  i.e.,  of  the  Mishna),  in  which  the 
customary  law  was  reduced  to  writing.  The  Mishna  received 
its  final  redaction  at  the  end  of  the  second  Christian  century. 
The  Talmud,  both  the  Palestinian  (belonging  to  the  fourth 
century  a.d.)  and  the  Babylonian  (the  sixth  century),  is  a 
detailed  commentary  on  the  text  of  the  Mishna,  with  edifying 
as  well  as  legal  matter.  The  Targums  are  Aramaic,  often 
free  paraphrastic   translations  of  the  Old  Testament  text, 


SURVEY   OF   LITERARY   SOURCES  I37 

dating  from  the  third  and  fourth  centuries  a.d.  The  Midrashes 
contain  commentaries  on  the  text  of  scripture,  especially  the 
later,  edifying  kind  ;  they  begin  with  the  second  century  a.d. 
These  writings  contain  very  much  older  material,  especially 
the  Mishna,  and  the  tract  Pirke  Aboth,  i.e.,  Sayings  of  the 
Fathers,  utterances  of  certain  renowned  teachers,  mostly  of 
the  period  70-170  a.d.,  but  also  of  earlier  date.  (This  tract 
is  embodied  in  the  Mishna,  but  does  not  belong  to  it).  The 
preference  of  contemporary  sources  is  justified  :  (i)  because 
it  is  a  general  methodic  principle  to  adduce  the  literature 
which  stands  nearest  in  point  of  time  ;  (2)  because  after 
70  A.D.  a  considerable  change  befell  Judaism  in  the  direction 
of  legalistic  rigidity  ;  (3)  because  the  older  material  of  the 
later  rabbinical  literature  can  only  be  employed  after  a  very 
difficult,  critical  sifting,  and  in  accordance  with  views  which 
can  be  substantiated  by  means  of  contemporary  sources. 

III.     Survey  of  the  most  important  Literary  Sources, 

CLASSIFIED  WITH  REGARD  TO  THEIR  CONTENTS. 

A . — Palestinian  Literature. 

1.  Historical  works:  I  Maccabees,  Josephus. 

2.  Proverbial  literature  :        Jesus  Sirach,  Pirke  Aboth. 

3.  Religious  poetry :  The      latest      Old      Testament 

Psalms,  the  Psalms  of  Solomon. 

4.  Edifying  legends :  Esther,      Judith,      Tobit,      II 

Maccabees. 

5.  Haggadic  interpretation  :  Jubilees. 

6.  Apocalypses  :  Daniel,  Testament  of  the  Twelve 

Patriarchs  (original  basis) , 
Ethiopic  Enoch,  Ascension  of 
Moses,  Slavonic  Enoch,  IV  Ezra, 
Syriac  apocal3rpse  of  Baruch. 

B. — A  lexa  ndrian  Literature. 

The  Sibylline  Oracles,  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  the  writings  of 
Philo,  IV  Maccabees. 


LITERATURE 

Among  important  scientific  works  the  following  deal  with 
this  subject : — 
*Schurer  :  '  Geschichte  des  jiidischen  Volkes  im  Zeitalter  Jesu 

Christi,'  3  vols.,  3rd  ed.,  1898-1901. 
Bousset :     '  Die  Religion  des  Judentums  im  neutestament- 

lichen  Zeitalter,'   1903. 
On  the  Jewish  side  the  most  important  work  is  : — 
*Graetz  :    '  Geschichte  der  Juden,'  4th  ed.  1888, 

These  works  are  helpful  for  scholarly  study.     The  general 
reader  may  consult : — 
Wellhausen :     '  Israelitische   und   jiidische   Geschichte,'    4th 

ed.,   1901. 
Schlatter  :    '  Israels  Geschichte  von  Alexander  dem  Grossen 

bis  Hadrian,'    1901. 
O.  Holtzmann  :    '  Die  jiidische  Schriftgelehrsamkeit  zur  Zeit 

Jesu,'  1901, 
Bousset :     '  Die  jiidische  Apocalyptik,'    1903. 
Baldensperger  :     '  Das   spatere   Judentum   als   Vorstufe   des 

Christentums,'    1900. 

The  three  last  named  are  shorter  expositions. 

*  English  Translations  : — 

Schiirer  :  '  A  History  of  the  Jewish  People  in  the  Time 
of  Jesus  Christ,'  5  vols.,  1890  (translated  from  the  second 
German  edition). 

Graetz  :    '  History  of  the  Jews,'  5  vols.,  1891-2. 


Verzeichnis  der  erschienenen  Volksbiicher. 

I.  Reihe  :  Die  Religion  des  Neuen  Testaments,  i.  Wernle  : 
Die  Quellen  des  Lebens  Jesu.  ii. — 20.  Taus. — 2./3.  Bousset  : 
Jesus.  21. — 30.  Taus. — 4.  Vischer  :  Die  Paulusbriefe. — 
5-/6.  Wrede  :  Paulus.  11. — 20.  Taus. — 7.  HoUmann  :  Welche 
Religion  hatten  die  Juden  als  Jesus  auftrat  ? — 8.  u.  10. 
Schmiedel :  Das  vierte  Evangelium  gegeniiber  den  drei 
ersten. — 12.  Ders.  :  Evangelium,  Briefe  und  Offenbarung  des 
Johannes. — 9.  v.  Dobschiitz  :  Das  apostolische  Zeitalter. — 
II.  Holtzmann  :  Die  Entstehung  des  Neuen  Testaments. — 13. 
Knopf :  Die  Zukunftshoffnungen  des  Urchristentums. — 14. 
Jiilicher  :  Paulus  und  Jesus. — 15.  Geffcken  :  Christliche 
Apokryphen. — 16.  Briickner :  Der  sterbende  und  auferstehende 
Gottheiland  i.d.  oriental.  Religionen  u.  i.  Verhaltnis  z.  Christ- 
ent. — 17.  E.  Petersen :  Die  wunderbare  Geburt  des  Heilajides. 
1909. — 18./19.  Weiss :  Christus.  Die  Anfange  des  Dogmas.  1909. 

II.  Reihe :  Die  Religion  des  Alten  Testaments,  i.  Lehmann- 
Haupt :  Israels  Geschicke  im  Rahmen  der  Weltgeschichte. 
(In  Vorbereitung.) — 2.  Kiichler  :  Hebraische  Volkskunde. — 
3. 1  und  II.  Merx  :  Die  Biicher  Moses  und  Josua. — 5.  Budde  : 
Das  prophetische  Schrifttum. — 7.  Beer  :  Saul,  David,  Salomo. 
— 8.  Gunkel :  Elias. — 9.  Nowack  :  Amos  und  Hosea. — 10. 
Guthe  :  Jesaia. — 14.  Lohr  :  Seelenkampfe  und  Glaubens- 
note  vor  2000  Jahren. — 15.  Benzinger :  Wie  wurden  die 
Juden  das  Volk  des  Gesetzes  ? — 17.  Bertholet :  Daniel  und 
die  griechische  Gefahr. 

III.  Reihe  :  Allgemeine  Religionsgeschichte.  Religionsver- 
gleichung.  i.  Pfleiderer  :  Vorbereitung  des  Christentums  in 
der  griechischen  Philosophie. — 2.  Bertholet :  Seelenwanderung 
— 3.  Soderblom  :  Die  Religionen  der  Erde. — 4.  Hackmann  : 
Der  Ursprung  des  Buddhismus. — 5.  Ders.  :  Der  siidliche 
Buddhismus. — 7.  Ders.  :  Der  Buddhismus  in  China  usw. — 6. 
Wendland,  Die  Schopfung  der  Welt. — 8.  Becker  :  Christentum 
und  Islam. — 9.  Vollmer :  Vom  Lesen  und  Deuten  heiUger  Schrif- 
ten. — 10.  Gressmann  :  Die  Ausgrabungen  in  Palastina  u.  d.  A,  T. 

IV.  Reihe :  Kirchengeschichte.  i.  Jiingst :  Pietisten. — 
2.  Wernle  :  Paulus  Gerhard t. — 3.74.  Kriiger  :  Das  Papsttum. 
Seine  Idee  und  ihre  Trager. — 5.  Weinel :  Die  urchristliche 
und  die  heutige  Mission. — 6.  Mehlhom  :  Die  Bliitezeit  der 
deutschen  Mystik. — 7.  Holl :  Der  Modemismus. — 8.  Ohle  : 
Der  Hexenwahn. — 9.  Baur  :   Johann  Calvin.     1909. 

V.  Reihe :  Weltanschauung  und  Religionsphilosophie. 
I.  Niebergall :  Welches  ist  der  beste  Religion  ? — 2.  Traub  : 
Die  Wunder  im  Neuen  Testament.  11. — 20.  Taus. — 3.  J.  Peter- 
sen :  Naturforschung  und  Glaube.  11. — 15.  Taus. — 4.  Meyer  : 
Was  uns  Jesus  heute  ist. — 5.  O.  Schmiedel :  Richard  Wagners 
religiose  Weltanschauung. — 6.  Bousset :   Unser  Gottesglaube. 

Particulars  as  to  price  may  be  obtained  from  the  publishers  : 
J.  C.  B.  Mohr  (Paul  Siebeck)  Tiibingen. 


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